Division  /~\ 
BR  A5  .B35  1903 
Hampton    lectures 


THE    ENGLISH    SAINTS 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON 
NATIONAL  CHARACTER 


.I.USTRATKl)    l;V 


THE    LIVES   AND    LEGENDS 

OF 

THE  ENGLISH  SAINTS 


Ebc  Bainpton  Xccturc5 

FKp:ACHEr)    BEFORE    THE    UNIVERSIIV    OF    OXFORJ 
IN    THE    YEAR     I 903 


BY 

WILLIAM    HOLDEN    HUTTON,    B.D. 

FELLOW,    TUTOR,    AND    FKECENTOR   OF   S.    JOHN's   COI.LEOE,    OXFORD 
EXAMININC;    CHAPLAIN    TO   THE    BISHOF   OF   ELY 


N  E  W  YORK 
E.  P.  BUTTON  AND  COMPANY 

31  WEST  TWENTY-THIRD    STREET 
1903 


EXTRACT 
FROM   THE   LAST   WILL   AND    TESTAMENT 

OF    THE    LATH 

REV.    JOHN    BAMPTON, 

CANON    OF    SALISBURY. 


"  I  give  and  bequeath  my  Lands  and  Estates  to 

"  the  Chancellor,  Masters,  and  Scholars  of  the  University 
"  of  Oxford  for  ever,  to  have  and  to  hold  all  and  singular 
"  the  said  Lands  or  Estates  upon  trust,  and  to  the  intents 
"and  purposes  hereinafter  mentioned  ;  that  is  to  say,  I  will 
"  and  appoint  that  the  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  of 
"  Oxford  for  the  time  being  shall  take  and  receive  all  the 
"  rents,  issues,  and  profits  thereof,  and  (after  all  taxes, 
"  reparations,  and  necessary  deductions  made)  that  he  pay 
"  all  the  remainder  to  the  endowment  of  eight  Divinity 
"  Lecture  Sermons,  to  be  established  for  ever  in  the  said 
"  University,  and  to  be  performed  in  the  manner  following : 

"  I  direct  and  appoint,  that,  upon  the  first  Tuesday  in 
"  Easter  Term,  a  Lecturer  be  yearly  chosen  by  the  Heads 
"  of  Colleges  only,  and  by  no  others,  in  the  room  adjoining 
"to  the  Printing- House,  between  the  hours  of  ten  in  the 
"  morning  and  two  in  the  afternoon,  to  preach  eight  Divinity 
"  Lecture  Sermons,  the  year  following,  at  St.  Mary's  in 
"  Oxford,  between  the  commencement  of  the  last  month 
"  in  Lent  Term,  and  the  end  of  the  third  week  in  Act 
"  Term. 

"Also  I  direct  and  appoint,  that  the  eight  Divinity 
"  Lecture  Sermons  shall  be  preached  upon  either  of  the 
[  V  ] 


vi     Extract  from  Last  Will  and  Testament 

"  following  Subjects — -to  confirm  and  establish  the  Christian 
"  Faith,  and  to  confute  all  heretics  and  schismatics — upon 
"  the  divine  authority  of  the  holy  Scriptures — upon  the  divine 
"  authority  of  the  writings  of  the  primitive  Fathers,  as  to 
"  the  faith  and  practice  of  the  primitive  Church — upon  the 
"  Divinity  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ — upon 
"the  Divinity  of  the  Holy  Ghost — upon  the  articles  of  the 
"  Christian  Faith,  as  comprehended  in  the  Apostles'  and 
"  Nicene  Creeds. 

"  Also  I  direct,  that  thirty  copies  of  the  eight  Divinity 
"  Lecture  Sermons  shall  be  always  printed,  within  two 
"months  after  they  are  preached;  and  one  copy  shall  be 
"  given  to  the  Chancellor  of  the  University,  and  one  copy 
"  to  the  Head  of  every  College,  and  one  copy  to  the  Mayor 
"of  the  city  of  Oxford,  and  one  copy  to  be  put  into  the 
"Bodleian  Library;  and  the  expenses  of  printing  them 
"  shall  be  paid  out  of  the  revenue  of  the  Land  or  Estates 
"  given  for  establishing  the  Divinity  Lecture  Sermons  ;  and 
"  the  preacher  shall  not  be  paid,  nor  be  entitled  to  the 
"  revenue,  before  they  are  printed. 

'•  Also  I  direct  and  appoint,  that  no  person  shall  be 
"  qualified  to  preach  the  Divinity  Lecture  Sermons  unless 
"  he  hath  taken  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  at  least,  in 
"  one  of  the  two  Universities  of  Oxford  or  Cambridge  ;  and 
"  that  the  same  person  shall  never  preach  the  Divinity 
"  Lecture  Sermons  twice." 


TO 

ALWYNE 

LORD    BISHOP    OF    ELY 

AND    LORD    HIGH    ALMONER 

IN 

DUTIFUL    AFFECTION 


PREFACE 

There  are  few  more  unpleasant,  or  more  constant, 
additions  to  modern  literature  than  those  which  contain 
morsels  of  trivial  and  unnecessary  autobiography  from 
uninteresting  and  unimportant  persons.  And  yet  I  am 
unable  to  resist  the  temptation  to  make  my  contribution 
to  this  rubbish-heap,  because  I  feel  that  these  Lectures 
need  a  word  of  apology  and  explanation. 

The  task  was  undertaken,  or  rather  the  subject 
(which  had  long  been  vaguely  in  the  writer's  mind) 
was  suggested,  at  the  last  possible  moment,  and  in 
consequence  of  a  chance  conversation  during  a  few 
minutes'  railway  journey.  It  was  impossible  at  such 
short  notice  to  prepare  a  syllabus  or  even  to  sketch  a 
definite  scheme :  and,  when  the  work  was  once  begun, 
the  future  Lecturer  discovered  that  he  had  indeed 
rushed  in  where  angels  might  well  fear  to  tread. 
The  greater  part  of  a  Long  Vacation,  with  a  few 
weeks  at  Christmas  and  in  March,  and  a  few  hours 
snatched  during  Oxford  terms  and  spent  in  the  Bodleian 
Library,  have,  owing  to  the  engrossing  claims  of  tutorial 
work,  been  all  the  time  which  it  has  been  possible  to 
devote  to  the  work  of  preparation,  composition,  and 
[  ix  ] 


X  Preface 

revision.  And  these  have  been  seriously  affected  by 
what  an  earHer  Bampton  Lecturer  has  also  had  cause 
to  describe  as  "the  common  enemy,  the  inHuenza." 
Lectures  produced  under  these  circumstances  may 
indeed  demand  long  and  full  revision :  but  this  the 
explicit  direction  of  the  Founder's  will  for  a  practically 
immediate  publication  renders  impossible. 

I  am  therefore  compelled  to  let  what  I  have  written 
go  forth  as  it  stands.  That  I  have  been  able  to 
complete  the  Lectures  at  all  is  not  a  little  due  to  the 
kindness  of  many  friends.  Lecture  IL  is  especially 
indebted  to  their  aid.  I  have  endeavoured  to  acknow- 
ledge it  in  the  footnotes ;  but  I  cannot  forbear  to 
mention  here  an  act  of  great  kindness,  which  has  come 
to  me  as  indeed  a  great  relief — at  a  time  when,  owing 
to  "the  common  enemy,"  I  am  capable  of  very  little 
exertion — in  the  strongly  urged  offer  of  my  friend  and 
former  pupil,  Mr.  Lionel  Strachan,  Lektor  in  the 
University  of  Heidelberg,  to  make  the  index — an  offer 
which  I  have  most  thankfully  accepted.  To  all  those 
who  have  helped  me  in  many  ways  I  desire  to  express 
most  grateful  thanks  ;  not  least  to  my  publishers  for  the 
special  interest  they  have  shown  during  the  progress  of 
the  book,  and  particularly  to  my  friend,  Mr.  F.  J.  H, 
Darton,  for  his  kindly  and  valuable  assistance. 

Part  of  Lecture  VL  appeared  some  years  ago  in 
The  Church  Quarterly  Review,  and  a  few  pages  here 
and  there  in  other  parts  of  the  book  have  been  already 
printed  in  The  Guardian  or  The  Pilot.  My  thanks  are 
due  in  each  case  for  permission  to  reprint  them  now. 

And  so  the  book  must  go  forth.  No  one  can  feel 
more  keenly  than   I    do   how   incomplete   it    is — much 


Preface  xi 

more  incomplete  than  the  necessary  hmits  of  the 
Lectures  render  inevitable.  In  regard  to  the  lives  of 
the  saints,  it  has  dealt  only  with  representative  names, 
and  that  often  in  a  most  meagre  way.  And  the 
treatment  has  been  primarily,  perhaps  almost  entirely, 
historical.  As  an  historical  contribution  to  theological 
study  it  must  be  judged.  It  is  in  this  regard  that  I 
have  thought  it  not  unfitting  to  publish,  as  an  appendix 
to  Lecture  IV.,  the  hitherto  unprinted  MS.  Life  of 
Edward  King  and  Martyr,  one  of  the  valuable  posses- 
sions of  the  College  to  which  I  have  the  honour  to 
belong.  But  I  do  not  imagine  that  in  offering  this 
contribution,  even  if  the  book  approached  more  nearly 
to  what  I  should  have  wished  it  to  be,  I  am  touch- 
ing more  than  one  aspect  of  Christian  apologetics  :  and 
I  am  touching  that  but  slightly.  The  influence  of 
religion  on  character  is  not  a  complete  argument  for 
religious  belief:  it  needs  to  be  supported  and  supple- 
mented by  others.  My  work  is  limited  to  the  effects, 
and  does  not  touch  the  essence,  of  spiritual  truth. 


W.  H.   H, 


The  Great  House,  Burford,  Oxon. 
.b'.  Benedict's  Day^  1903. 


CONTENTS 

I'AGE 

LECTURE  I 
The  Witness  of  the  Saints  -  -  -         i 

LECTURE  II 

National  Saints         -  -  -  -  -       3^ 

LECTURE  III 

The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion  -  -       92 

LECTURE  IV 
The  Royal  Saints     -----     125 
Appendix  to  Lecture  IV. :  Passio  et  Mimcula  Edivavdi 

Regis  et  Martins     -  -  -  -  -     167 

LECTURE  V 

The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit   -  -  -     181 

LECTURE  VI 

The  Statesmen  Saints          .  .  .  .     227 

Appendix  to  Lecture  VI.  :  English  Medieval  Miracles   -     277 
[  xiii  ] 


xiv  Contents 

PAGE 

LECTURE  VII 
Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints-  -     299 

LECTURE  VIII 
The  Completion  of  Faith   -  -  -  -     331 

Index  -------     369 


Benedicat  Israel  Doiiiiniim  :  laudet  ct  siipcrexaltet  Eum  in 
scecula. 

Benedicite  sacerdotcs  Domini  Domino :  benedicitc  servi  Domini 
Dojnitio. 

Benedicite  spirit  us  et  animce  justoruDi  Doniino  :  benedicite  sa?icti 
et  Jnuniles  corde  Domino. 

Benedicamiis  Patrem  et  Filium  cum  sanclo  Spiritu :  laiideinus 
et  superexaltemus  Etim  in  scecula. 


THE 

ENGLISH     SAINTS 

LECTURE  I 
THE  WITNESS   OF  THE  SAINTS 

"What  is  man  that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him,  and  the  son  of 
man  that  Thou  visitest  him  ?  For  Thou  hast  made  him  but  little 
lower  than  God,  and  crownest  him  with  glory  and  honour.  Thou 
madest  him  to  have  dominion  over  the  works  of  Thy  hands  ;  Thou 
hast  put  all  things  under  his  feet." — Ps.  viii.  4-6. 

"  For  both  He  that  sanctifieth  and  they  that  are  sanctified  are  all 
of  One." — Heb.  ii.  11. 

So  the  Psalmist  witnesses  to  the  place  of  man  in  God's 
creation :  and  in  the  first  age  of  the  Church  the 
Christian  who  would  encourage  his  Jewish  brethren  in 
the  trials  that  beset  the  life  of  their  conversion  appeals 
to  the  words  again,  in  proof  of  God's  call  and  man's 
destiny,  and  in  illustration  of  the  work  of  Jesus,  the 
Incarnate  Son. 

The  life  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth  links  man  to  heaven. 
It  is  with  a  significant  change  that  the  writer  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews^  uses  the  Psalmist's  words 
before  he  expands  the  argument.     "  Thou  madest  man 

1  Heb.  ii.  5-18.  On  this  passage  Bishop  Westcott  has  much 
illuminative  comment :  but  I  am  not  taking  precisely  the  same 
point  of  view.     Hebrews  ii.  7  follows  the  LXX. 

[   I   ]  I 


2  The  English  Saints 

a  little  lower  than  the  angels,"  he  says,  for  when  he 
speaks  of  Jesus  Himself  he  sees  the  height  from  which 
He  descended  in  His  voluntary  humiliation.  To  that 
man  can  never  reach :  "  but  little  lower  than  God  "  is 
an  elevation  too  startling  for  man,  when  we  think  of 
what  Jesus  was.  And  yet  He,  very  God,  "  hath  been 
made  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,"  and  became  man  : 
and  the  unity  which  He  assumed  with  His  brethren 
and  ratified  by  His  sacrifice.  He  retains  for  ever  :  and 
He  wins  for  them  the  holiness  which  is  His  own,  the 
holiness  of  God. 

*'  Both  He  that  sanctifieth  and  they  that  are  sancti- 
fied are  all  of  One :  for  which  cause  He  is  not  ashamed 
to  call  them  brethren." 

In  an  age  like  our  own  the  old  grounds  of  Christian 
apology  cannot  wholly  content  us.  We  restate  theo- 
logical arguments,  we  follow  anew  the  divergent  lines 
of  philosophic  speculation,  we  reconsider,  we  adapt,  we 
controvert,  sometimes  we  accept,  and  find  in  things 
that  seem  discoveries  of  our  day  but  the  old  founda- 
tions of  Christian  thinkers  of  the  past.  Is  the  new 
statement  satisfactory  ?  Is  it  complete  ?  Are  we 
secure  ?  There  will  be  many  answers.  The  world 
unfolds  before  us  new  wonders  year  by  year,  and  space 
is  filled  with  life  and  mystery.  It  is  not  strange  that 
at  times  faith  staggers. 

At  such  times  the  witness  of  the  ages  to  the  life  and 
mission  of  Christ  is  invaluable.  The  revelation  of 
Christ  is  a  revelation  in  us.  Not  apart  from  man,  but 
in  and  through  man,  does  He  live,  and  witness  to  the 
truth  of  immortality  and  God.  Like  the  thinkers  of 
the  Renaissance,  we  are  brought  back  to  the  thought 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  3 

of  the  essential  dignity  of  man — a  dignity  which  Christ 
came  to  justify  and  to  confirm.  Man  knows,  even  in 
the  depth  of  his  humiHating  self-knowledge,  that  God 
has  made  him  worthy  of  His  love.  Truly,  "  Thou  hast 
made  him  but  little  lower  than  God,  and  crownest  him 
with  glory  and  honour."  The  world  is  morally  at  his 
feet  :  he  has  dominion  over  all  the  works  of  his  Maker's 
hands.  The  grandest  thing  that  we  know  on  this 
earth  is  the  character  and  potentiality  of  man. 

But  that  moral  greatness  is  only  realized — we  claim 
it  unhesitatingly — as  man  draws  nigh  to  the  character 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  unique  revelation  of  God  to  man. 
In  Him  there  is  the  effulgence  of  His  glory,  the  very 
impress  and  expression  of  His  Divine  being.  His 
character  is  inexhaustible.  The  Incarnation  presents 
to  man,  for  guidance,  for  healing,  for  imitation,  the 
limitless  energies  of  the  life  of  God. 

And  upon  this  Divine  life  the  ideal  of  the  Christian 
character  is  based.  It  is  full  of  endless  possibilities,  as 
the  revelation  of  God  grows  and  inspires  in  the  human 
heart.  "  Uno  iiincrc  non  potest  perveniri  ad  tain  grande 
secretuin.'"  God  is  not  only  Himself  ev  iraa-b  TeXeio<;, 
but  iraaav  dp6Tr]<i  Iheav  ev  Xaw  K€KTr]fi6i'o<i}  And  the 
possibilities  of  the  Divine  life  among  men  are  gathered 
and  cherished  in  the  Communion  of  the  Saints. 

The  Comnmnion  of  Saints  :  not  for  slight  cause  was 
this  made  an  essential  Article  of  the  Christian  creed. 
It  proclaims  the  unity  of  the  redeemed  with  their 
Redeemer.  "  For  both  He  that  sanctifieth  and  they 
that  are  sanctified  are  all  of  One :  for  which  cause  He 
is  not  ashamed  to  call  them  brethren."  His  life,  the 
'  S.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Catech.^  iv.  4. 

I — 2 


4  The  English  Saints 

life  of  God,  is  shared  with  them  :  and  their  Communion 
means  not  only  the  present  and  essential  fellowship  of 
Christians — in  spite  of  our  unhappy  divisions,  which 
may  God  pardon  and  heal — but  it  preserves  for  aid 
and  for  example  the  different  types  of  character  in 
which  special  aspects  of  the  Divine  image  have  been 
approached.  The  life  of  Christ  is  the  source,  the 
Church  of  Christ  is  the  home,  of  the  Communion  of 
Saints.  That  is  the  true  Catholicity  of  the  Church, 
the  unity  expressed,  as  of  old,  iroXv/xepwi;  koL  •noXvrpoTrco'^, 
by  divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners.  "The 
Church  is  one,"  says  S.  Cyprian,  "  which  is  spread 
abroad  into  a  multitude  far  and  wide  by  increase  of 
fruitfulness,  as  many  are  the  sun's  rays  but  one  light, 
and  many  the  tree's  branches  but  one  strength  founded 
in  its  tenacious  root  ;  and  since  from  one  fount  flow 
many  streams,  although  the  multiplicity  seems  diffused 
in  the  richness  of  an  overflowing  plenty,  yet  the  unity 
is  still  preserved  in  the  source."^ 

So  S.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  in  a  glowing  description  of 
the  Catholic  Society —  which  is  extended  over  the 
globe,  and  teaches  without  error  all  things  which  man 
needs  to  know,  and  subjects  the  whole  race  of  man  to 
godliness,  rulers  and  subjects,  learned  and  ignorant 
alike,  and  treats  and  heals  universally  every  kind  of  sin 
that  is  committed  in  the  soul  and  in  the  body — ends 
by  proclaiming  that  it  possesses  in  itself  every  con- 
ception of  what  can  be  called  virtue,  in  whatever  form, 
whether  it  is  shown  in  deeds  or  words,  or  in  any  sort  of 
spiritual  gift.- 

^  S.  Cyprian,  De  Caflioliccr  Ecclcsicr  Uni/a/c,  5. 
-  CatccJi.^  xviii.  23. 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  5 

"  Every  conception  of  what  can  be  called  virtue," 
every  endeavour,  in  divers  manners,  to  reach  to  the 
fulness  of  the  character  of  Christ :  it  is  that  which  the 
lives  of  those  whom  Christians  call  saints  present  for  our 
admiration  and  our  support.  Living  among  men  as  men 
live,  they  show  that  the  imitation  of  Christ  is  possible, 
without  affectation  or  unreality,  in  singleness  of  heart. 

"  Christians,"  says  one  of  the  earliest  apologists,  "  are 
not  distinguished  from  the  rest  of  men  either  by  land,  or 
speech,  or  customs,  for  they  do  not  dwell  somewhere  in 
their  own  cities,  or  use  a  different  language,  or  practise 
an  extraordinary  kind  of  life.  .  .  .  They  dwell  in  their 
own  countries,  but  as  sojourners ;  they  take  part  in  all 
things  as  citizens,  yet  they  suffer  all  things  as  strangers. 
Every  foreign  country  is  their  fatherland,  and  every 
fa^lherland  is  foreign."^  And  so  it  comes  that  "  what  the 
soul  is  in  the  body  that  the  Christians  are  in  the  world.' '^ 

This,  then,  is  an  apology  for  the  Christian  faith 
which  in  days  of  unrest  and  hesitation  we  may  put 
forward  with  unhesitating  assurance.  "  It  is,  indeed, 
an  enormous  fact  which  there  is  no  evading  .  .  .  not 
to  be  slurred  over  with  indolent  generalities,  with 
unmeaning  talk  of  superstition,  of  the  twilight  of  the 
understanding,  of  barbarism,  and  of  nursery  credulity."- 
Here  are  hves,  lived  under  all  sorts  of  conditions,  in 
ages  most  different,  which  exhibit  a  holiness  and  a 
beauty  that  no  man  can  deny.  In  all  their  diversity 
they  agree  in  one  invariable  claim :  they  derive  their 
sole  inspiration,  their  sole  power,  to  live  the  godly  life 

1  Ep.  ad  Diogtietum^  5,  6. 

2  J.  A.  Froude,  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects  (1881),  \ol.  i. 
p.  565. 


6  The  English  Saints 

from  the  belief  in  Jesus,  Incarnate,  Crucified.  Chris- 
tianity has  no  being  apart  from  Christ.  His  hfe  was  a 
Theology:  but,  no  less,  His  Theology  was  a  life.  It  is 
so,  it  must  be  so,  with  those  who  have  truly  followed 
Him.  Whoso  doeth  the  wall  of  God,  he  shall  know  of 
the  doctrine.  Human  life  is  not  complete,  human 
nature  has  not  realized  its  full  powers,  till  it  is  drawn 
to  the  imitation  of  Christ  :  and  as  it  lives  in  Him,  in 
Him  it  comes  to  know.  All  our  knowledge,  and  that  is 
our  highest  good,  not  merely  depends  upon  the  know- 
ledge of  God,  but  in  that  wholly  consists ;  for  man 
advances  in  perfection  in  proportion  to  the  perfection 
of  that  which  he  loves  above  all  other  things :  and  he 
who  knows  and  loves  God  is  alone  most  perfect  and 
most  blessed. 

It  is  the  thought  of  Spinoza  :^  and  the  lives  of  the 
saints  are  the  perpetual  evidence  of  its  truth.  In  the 
knowledge  and  love  of  God  alone  is  their  power  to  live 
the  life  of  goodness  :  in  that  only  is  their  confidence  :- 
and  that  is  the  root  of  their  witness  in  the  world. 

^  Tractatus  Thcologico-Politicus,  iv.  12  {Opera,  ed.  Leipzig', 
1846,  vol.  iii.,  p.  64)  :  "Atque  adeo  tota  nostra  cognitio,  hoc  est, 
summum  nostrum  bonum,  non  tantum  a  Dei  cognitione  dependet, 
sed  in  eadem  omnino  consistit ;  quot  etiam  ex  hoc  sequitur,  quod 
homo  pro  natura  et  perfectione  rei,  quam  prae  reliquis  amat,  eo 
ctiam  perfectior  est,  et  contra.  Adeoque  ille  necessario  perfec- 
tissimus  est  ct  de  summa  beatitudine  maxime  participat,  qui  Dei, 
entis  nimirum  perfectissimi,  intellectualem  cognitionem  supra 
omnia  amat  eadcmque  maxime  delectatur." 

2  "  piega  d  su  Majestad  nos  le  dd  a  probar  antes  que  nos  saque 
de  esta  vida  porque  serd  gran  cosa  d  la  hora  de  la  muerte,  que 
vamos  donde  creemos  haber  amado,  sobre  todas  las  cosas  y  con 
pasion  de  amor  que  nos  saque  de  nosotras,  al  Senor  que  nos  ha  de 
uzgar  :  siguros  podrdmos  ir,  con  el  pleito  de  nuestras  deudas.     No 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  7 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view,  then,  that  we  may 
approach  the  consideration  of  the  effect  of  Christianity 
upon  national  character.  We  are  to  judge  of  the 
doctrine  by  its  fruits.  Are  they  truly  set  for  the  healing 
of  the  nations  ?  Has  the  imitation  of  Christ,  has  the 
treasury  of  Christian  types  in  the  Church,  really  modi- 
fied human  character,  purified  aims,  elevated  life  ? 

It  is  not  to  be  denied.  In  the  European  civilization 
that  has  been  built  up  since  Christ  was  preached  in  the 
West  we  have  the  historical  answer.  When  all  deduc- 
tions are  made,  it  must  still  be  admitted  that  society 
is  penetrated  with  Christian  ideals :  and  the  Christian 
ideal  is  the  character  of  Christ.  Goodness,  be  it  in 
justice,  or  purity,  or  charity,  or  in  any  of  the  many 
conceptions  of  what  can  be  called  virtue,  has  been 
beaten  down,  but  it  has  recovered  :  and  truly  "society 
in  Christian  times  has  somehow  or  other  possessed  a 
security,  a  charm,  against  utter  ruin,  which  society 
before  them  had  not."i  A  great  writer  has  analysed  the 
influence  for  us,  as  it  has  been  exercised  on  the  Greeks, 
the  Latins,  the  Teutons.-  A  race  of  splendid  gifts,  of 
widespreading  sympathies,  of  extraordinary  assimilating 
power,  welcomed  the  Gospel,  as  indeed  the  good  news 
of  life.  And  the  Gospel  preserved  for  it  its  very 
existence.     Persecuted,  massacred,  scattered,  the  Greeks 


sera  ir  a  tierra  extraiia,  sino  a  propria,  pues  es  de  quien  tanto 
amamos,  que  eso  tiene  mijor  con  todo  lo  demas,  que  los  quereres 
de  aca,  que  en  amdndole,  estamos  bien  siguras  que  nos  ama."— 
S.Teresa,  Camino  de  Perfeccion,  in    Works,  Madrid,  1861,  i.  371. 

1  Dean  Church,  Gifts  of  Civilisation,  p.  1 50. 

"-  Dean  Church,  op.  cit.,  pp.  155-249,  whose  argument  I  compress 
durinL'  the  next  few  sentences. 


8  The  English  Saints 

have  held  together  through  unfaltering  loyalty  to  the 
faith  of  Christ.  The  Faith  added  to  their  ideals  of 
character  by  the  principles  which  underlay  its  teaching 
of  the  eternal  kingdom  of  God,  of  brotherhood  among 
men,  of  unalterable  hope.  National  endurance,  national 
fellowship,  national  hope — these  were  ideas  indeed  that 
saved  the  race  through  the  Church  of  Christ.  That 
the  influence  was  complete,  that  the  character  was 
transformed,  is  not  asserted :  but  undeniably  it  was 
enriched  and  strengthened  in  the  very  points  where 
most  conspicuously  it  had  been  weak  ;  and  in  words 
whose  power  we  shall  not  soon  forget  let  us  repeat 
"  that  the  Greek  race,  which  connects  us  with  some  of 
the  noblest  elements  of  our  civilization,  is  still  one  of 
the  living  races  of  Europe,  that  it  was  not  trampled, 
scattered,  extinguished,  lost,  amid  the  semi-barbarous 
populations  of  the  East,  that  it  can  look  forward  to 
a  renewed  career  in  the  great  commonwealth  of 
Christendom — this  it  owes  mainly  to  its  religion."^ 

And  while  Christianity  preached  to  the  Greeks  of 
severity  and  hope,  to  the  strong,  stern  Latin  races 
it  gave  imagination  and  the  sense  of  beauty,  thankful- 
ness, pity,  and  "the  religion  of  the  affections."  The 
love  of  God,  revealed  in  Christ,  created  a  new  literature 
as  the  evidence  of  a  transformation  of  the  character  of 
a  race.  Sympathy  and  sweetness,  the  fruits  of  love, 
joy,  and  peace,  came  to  the  peoples  of  whom  Rome  was 
the  mother  through  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

Closer  to  us  is  the  influence  on  the  Teutonic  races,  of 
which  we  are  visible  examples.  Here  a  new  spiritual 
power  was  awakened:  civilization  and  Christianity  came 

'  Dean  Clnuch,  op.  cit.,  p.  iS^. 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  9 

together  to  a  conquering  race,  and  came  to  soften,  and 
at  once  to  elevate  and  to  subdue.  How  the  vital  force 
has  worked  in  one  branch  of  the  great  Teutonic  family  it 
is  the  special  object  of  these  lectures  to  illustrate.  But 
in  each  branch,  in  different  degrees  and  in  divers 
manners,  the  same  subtle  and  compelling  influence  has 
been  active.  Through  the  teaching  of  God  in  the 
Church,  "  the  tenderness,  the  sweetness,  the  earnest- 
ness, the  solemnity,  the  awfulness  of  the  Christian  faith, 
sank  into  their  hearts,  diffused  itself  through  their  life, 
allied  itself  by  indestructible  bonds  with  what  was 
dearest  and  what  was  highest — with  their  homes,  their 
assemblies,  their  crowns,  their  graves."  ^ 

So  Christianity  has  left  its  mark,  writ  large  upon  the 
history  of  Europe,  on  the  Western  nations  of  the  old 
world.  But  the  process  of  change  in  national  character, 
the  working  out  of  enduring  influence,  is  not  to  be 
traced  out  merely  in  the  records  of  the  past.  We  can 
see  it  before  our  eyes  to-day.  Nor  is  this  change  con- 
fined to  the  races  of  the  West.  No  one  can  read  the 
reports  of  Christian  work  in  Asia  and  Africa,  or  in  the 
isles  scattered  over  the  Pacific  Ocean,  without  seeing 
that  a  real  and  a  decisive  influence  is  exercised  on  the 
national  character  by  the  acceptance  of  the  Faith.  In 
China  it  is  found  most  prominently  in  the  awakening 
of  the  idea  of  progress.  A  Chinese  Christian  is  one 
who  looks  forward,  who  substitutes  for  a  dead  con- 
servative tradition  a  living  power  of  adaptation  and 
advance  :  the  future  in  the  eternal  purpose  of  God 
inspires  him  with  an  activity,  a  vigour,  an  enterprise, 

1  Dean  Church,  op.  cit.,  pp.  231,  233. 


10  The  English  Saints 

utterly  unknown  before.^  The  Chinese  Christian  is  alto- 
gether a  new  character,  a  new  type :  and  the  next  century 
may  witness  through  it  one  of  the  most  marvellous  de- 
velopments that  the  history  of  the  world  has  ever  seen.- 

'  "  By  conversion,''  says  a  very  acute  observer  (the  Rev.  Roland 
Allen,  Church  Times,  July  25,  1902),  "the  personal  existence  of  the 
individual  soul  is  realized,  the  belief  that  its  powers  can  be 
strengthened  and  renewed  by  the  infusion  of  the  Divine  Spirit  of 
Jesus,  the  consciousness  of  communion  with  a  personal  Saviour  and 
Lord,  the  hope  of  an  eternity  of  glory  in  the  presence  of  God,  these 
things  once  grasped  lead  the  inquirer  gradually  to  set  his  face 
forward  to  the  future  with  a  new  and  surprising  vigour  of  life,  and 
so  the  whole  aspect  of  earthly  things  is  changed.  Everywhere  the 
man  learns  to  look  for  progress,  moral  and  intellectual  ;  a  spirit  of 
inquiry,  of  diligent  hopeful  effort  after  the  highest  and  best  end  of 
existence,  usurps  the  place  of  the  former  negligent,  indifferent  con- 
tentment with  the  present ;  new  power  is  sought  and  found,  new 
aptitudes  discovered,  old  capacities  enlarged  and  directed  to  new 
ends.  Life  becomes  realized  in  growth,  in  progress  towards  an  end 
which  appears  more  glorious  as  it  is  more  clearly  seen.  The  effect 
of  so  great  a  change  of  the  mind's  outlook  is  incalculable  and 
astonishing  even  in  the  most  ignorant  and  imperfect  Christians. 
With  all  their  faults— and  it  is  manifest  that  they  will  not  in  a 
moment  cease  to  be  what  they  have  ever  been,  or  grasp  at  one 
bound  all  that  the  new  faith  implies  and  demands — still,  they  have 
that  which  was  unknown  to  them  in  their  heathen  life,  and  the 
highest  becomes  possible.  Informed  by  this  new  ideal,  the  old 
conservatism  is  no  longer  a  dead  and  slavish  clinging  to  ancient 
ideas  :  it  becomes  an  element  of  the  greatest  strength  in  the  new 
life.  The  virtues  which  it  bred — patience,  reverence  for  the  past, 
for  all  that  is  best  in  their  old  tradition— remain,  and  save  them  from 
wild  and  extravagant  outbreaks  of  lawlessness  in  the  disguise  of  a 
new  liberty.  The  stability  of  Chinese  converts  has  often  been 
remarked,  and  has  received  new  confirmation  in  the  late  persecu- 
tions. Slow  to  accept  new  ideas,  the  people  are  slow  to  renounce 
what  has  been  once  accepted  and  approved.  Outward  persecution 
does  not  shake  them,  neither  do  they  hastily  rush  into  newer  and 
untried  paths." 

-  Mrs.  Bishop,  at  the  Ncv/castlc  Church  Congress,  iqoo  (see 
Church  Missionary  Intelligencer,  November,  1900,  p.  828),  said  : 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  ii 

In  Central  Africa  N\e  have  the  same  picture  from 
another  side — the  development  of  the  natural  strength 
of  solid  force,  that  lies  deep  down,  determined  and 
persistent,  in  the  native  character.  Acceptance  of  the 
Christian  brotherhood,  with  all  its  abundance  of  joy,^ 
brings  also  with  it  far  more  than  this.  It  brings  intel- 
lectual and  moral  awakening  that  can  be  seen  and 
noted  in  a  "visible  change  ":"'  it  brings,  with  the  know- 
ledge of  the  fatherhood  of  God,  a  sense  of  the  equality 
of  man,  of  the  sacredness  of  life  and  the  dignity  of 
work,  and,  most  of  all,  the  whole  life  is  raised  by  the 
Christian  ideal  of  purity.^  A  hard  struggle,  very  many 
failures  and  falls,  but  quite  unquestionably  a  gain  on 
the  whole  field,  is  the  acquisition,  not  of  civilization, 
but  of  Christianity. 

In  spite  of  all  failures,  "  there  is  a  very  real  difference 


"After  eight  and  a  half  years  of  journeying  among  Asiatic  peoples? 
1  say  unhesitatingly  that  the  raw  material  out  of  which  the  Holy 
(".host  fashions  the  Chinese  convert,  and  often  the  Chinese  martyr, 
is  the  best  stuff  in  Asia." 

1  C/.  the  striking  passage  in  Miss  Ward's  Letters  from  East 
Africa,  pp.  193,  194,  addressed  to  one  who,  though  conversant 
with  the  lives  of  early  medieval  saints,  had  not  taken  a  broad  view 
of  the  effect,  historically,  of  Christianity  upon  national  character. 
I  have  also  to  thank  Miss  Ward  for  giving  me  her  own  impres- 
sions, very  interesting  and  by  no  means  always  seen  with  rose- 
coloured  spectacles. 

2  Cf  note  of  Bishop  Smythies  in  1893  in  Life  (Ward),  p.  216. 

3  Miss  Ward  says  :  "  From  the  very  first  they  are  taught  that 
purity  is  essential  to  a  Christian.  This  may  almost  be  said  to  be 
the  beginning  and  end  of  all  missionary  endeavour.  They  learn 
the  new  ideal  of  a  Christian  family,  all  the  children  having  'one 
father  one  mother.'  They  learn  that  human  life  is  sacred,  so  that 
infanticide,  poisonings,  etc.,  are  against  the  Christian  law.'' 


12  The  English  Saints 

between  the  lives  of  Christians  and  the  hves  of  heathens  ; 
and  the  simple  piety  and  faith  of  those  who  try  to 
follow  our  Lord  are  a  perpetual  joy  and  encouragement 
to  those  who  watch  them."^  And  in  South  Africa  we 
are  told  by  those  who  know  that  the  spiritual  appre- 
hensions of  the  native  races  have  been  awakened  in 
a  marvellous  way.  We  hear  of  the  gravity,  the  tender- 
ness, the  whole-heartedness,  the  simplicity,  the  absence 
of  superstition,  the  growing  power  of  self-control,  the 
intelligent  grasp  of  truth,  the  passionate  search  for 
perfection,  by  the  Kafirs  who  accept  the  Gospel,  make 
the  great  sacrifice,  and  enter  the  fold,  which  is  the 
home  of  every  kind  of  virtue — the  Church  of  the  living 
God.  "  For  themselves,  the  affair  of  their  salvation 
is  real,  and  grace  works  in  them  with  a  mighty  and 
evident  power,  not,  of  course,  in  a  sudden  elimination 
of  every  fault,  but  in  a  genuine  infusion  of  faith  and 
hope  and  love,  and  the  prayer  and  effort  and  sorrow 
which  are  among  their  effects.  It  would  seem  as  if 
these  simple  natures,  with  their  direct  and  uncom- 
plicated passions,  their  physical  vigour  and  unshaken 
nerves,  move  towards  Christ  as  towards  a  food  which 
their  whole  being  requires,  and  which  they  receive  and 
hold  fast  with  the  force  of  a  normal  desire."- 

*  Miss  Ward  in  Friendly  Work,  August,  1902. 

-  P.  N.  Waggett  m  Journal  of  Theoloj^ical  S/iulies,  vol.  i.,  p.  221. 
It  is  not  European  civilization  which  can  do  this.  "The  mere 
removal  of  social  disabilities  and  abatement  of  social  tyranny 
cannot  raise  the  'red'  Kafir  and  fit  him  to  take  his  place  in  a 
Christian  community.  The  heathen  dock-labourer  in  Capetown  will 
never  get  a  glimpse  of  civilization  in  the  canteens  and  overcrowded 
lodging-houses.  A  native  chief  from  an  independent  territory, 
paying  a  visit  to  one  of  our  South  African  ports,  and  seeing  there 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints 


13 


Or  take  the  change,  wrought  among  the  cannibals 
who  inhabit  New  Guinea,  that  is  brought  before  us  in 
the  words  of  British  administrators — the   miracle,   as 


the  originally  simple  savages  of  his  own  tribe  transformed  by  the 
vices  of  civilization,  said,  'This  is  like  hell  1'  But  what  the  high 
wages  and  vices  of  a  big  city  cannot  do  for  the  native,  Christ  is 
doing  for  him  in  every  Christian  Mission  Station  to-day.  Christ 
by  the  Word  and  Sacraments  is  showing  to-day  the  place  in  the 
Christian  society  for  which  the  native  is  fit,  as  in  S.  Paul's  day  He 
raised  the  Christian  slaves  from  the  brutality  of  the  slums  of  Rome 
to  the  spirit  and  fellowship  of  the  Saints  and  Martyrs." 

Too  much  consideration  cannot  be  given  to  the  following  words 
from  the  same  source :  "  It  is  also  to  be  considered  that  the  prin- 
ciples of  British  Colonial  rule,  which  insists  on  protection  and  a 
fair  chance  for  every  native,  need  all  the  support  they  can  get 
from  Christian  Missions.  Dutch  and  English  selfishness  is  con- 
stantly reproaching  the  Government  for  the  justice  which  it  does 
to  the  natives.  'Look,'  it  says,  'at  the  native  wild  beast  whom 
you  leave  us,  even  in  Adderley  Street,  in  danger  of  brushing 
against.'  Our  statesmen  believe  in  the  principle  of  justice  and 
protection  for  the  aboriginal  races  under  our  rule,  but  they  have  to 
hold  it  against  an  intensely  strong  and  constant  stream  of  selfish 
opposition,  which  would  deliberately  thrust  back  the  native  races, 
and  keep  them  locked  up  in  ignorance  and  degradation,  to  be  used 
for  cheap-labour  supply  only  at  the  white  man's  convenience. 
The  result  of  our  missionary  work  among  natives  at  Capetown, 
and  of  every  Christian  IMission  in  Africa,  is  showing  more  or  less 
clearly,  and  increasingly,  the  reasonableness  and  rightness  of  the 
British  Colonial  principle  of  government.  The  law  insists  upon 
the  native's  right  to  rise,  if  he  can^  to  civilization  :  S.  Philip's 
Mission  is,  by  God's  grace,  showing  that  he  can.  I  believe  nobody 
could  ever  again  doubt  of  this  who  has  helped  to  teach  in  our 
Kafir  night-school,  or  has  knelt  with  our  native  Christians  at 
S.  Philip's  altar  to  receive  with  them  the  Holy  Sacrament,  and 
sing  with  them  in  Xosa,  '  O  Lamb  of  God,  that  takest  away  the 
sins  of  the  world,'  or  the  'Gloria  in  Excelsis,'  or  Dr.  Bright's 
Eucharistic  hymn,  'And  now,  O  Father,  mindful  of  the  love,'  etc." 
—Report  of  S.  Philip's  Missio?!,  CapctoK'/i,  1890. 


14  The  English  Saints 

one  governor  rightly  calls  it,  which  has  uprooted  the 
superstitions  and  horrors  of  centuries,  and  turned  men 
verily  from  the  power  of  Satan  to  God.  Well  might 
the  great  man  who  was  the  creator  of  the  British 
power  in  that  land  say  in  an  official  report:  "The 
labours  of  the  missionaries  have  to  such  an  extent 
modified  the  ways  of  thinking  and  the  social  relations 
of  the  natives  that  the  good  they  have  done  is  incal- 
culably great."  And,  again,  eight  years  later  :  "  The 
lapse  of  time  has  steadily  strengthened  the  conviction 
that  mission  labour  is  of  immense  value  and  importance 
in  the  possession."^  Truly,  the  Church  is  teaching  these 
savages  that  man  is  not  in  the  power  of  devils  and 
wizards:  for,  in  the  faith  and  love  of  Christ,  "Thou 
hast  made  him  but  little  lower  than  God,  and  crownest 
him  with  glory  and  honour.  Thou  madest  him  to 
have  dominion  over  the  works  of  Thy  hands  :  Thou 
hast  put  all  things  under  his  feet." 

It  is  the  same — a  great  man  of  letters  has  left  the 
testimony  not  to  be  gainsaid — with  the  simple  pleasure- 
loving  Polynesians.''  "  I  had  conceived  a  great  prejudice 
against  Missions  in  the  South  Seas,  and  I  had  no  sooner 
come  there  than  that  prejudice  was  at  first  reduced, 
and  then  at  last  annihilated.  Those  ^^•ho  deblatterate 
against  Missions  have  only  one  thing  to  do — to  come 
and  see  them  on  the  spot.  They  will  see  a  great  deal 
of  good  done  ;  they  will  see  a  race  being  forwarded  in 

'  I  quote  these  passages  from  Sir  William  Macgregor  and  from 
Mr.  Le  Hunte.  the  present  Lieutenant-Governor,  from  a  report  of 
the  Mansion  House  meeting  in  behalf  of  the  Diocese  of  New 
Guinea,  July  9,  1902  (Spottiswoode  and  Co.,  pp.  11,  26-28). 

-  R.  L.  Stevenson,  Life,  by  Graham  Balfour,  ii.  193. 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  15 

many  directions ;  and  I  believe,  if  they  be  honest 
persons,  they  will  cease  to  complain  of  Mission-work 
and  its  effects." 

As  with  races  primitive  and  barbaric  so  with  old 
civilizations  :  so,  slowly  but  surely,  India  is  changing 
before  our  eyes.  No  man  can  contrast  the  Christian 
population  of  Goa  with  that  of  any  non-Christian  State 
without  seeing  what  Christianity  has  wrought  ;  and 
within  our  own  dominions  we  have  the  testimony  of 
men  honoured  in  this  place  to  the  power  of  the  living 
Christ.  1 

1  Sir  W.  W.  Hunter,  Life,  pp.  375,  376  ;  and  cf.  Life  of 
Max  Miiller.  See  the  most  impressive  paper  of  Mr.  A.  C.  Ghose 
(Cambridge  University  Press,  1S96)  on  hidian  Christians.  The 
author  is  himself  a  native  Christian  of  very  high  abihty,  who  is 
now,  I  beheve,  in  Holy  Orders.  In  a  very  striking  way  he  sketches 
the  condition  of  his  country,  in  which  English  education  has  so 
enormously  widened  the  outlook  of  the  people.     But  he  continues  : 

■'  But  there  is  still  a  dead  weight  of  caste  prejudice  and  super- 
stition lying  like  a  curse  on  the  country.  It  is  only  the  Indian 
Christian  who  finds  himself  really  free,  and  therefore  able  to  devote 
himself  to  new  pursuits.  The  dissatisfaction  with  the  old  standard 
of  life  and  thought  finds  its  culminating  point  in  him.  Education, 
added  to  his  religious  and  social  freedom,  brings  high  professional 
prizes  within  his  grasp.  His  origin  may  be  low,  his  income  small, 
but  he  is  free  in  the  real  sense  of  the  word.  He  has  secured  the 
freedom  required  to  enable  him  to  live  up  to  the  new  and  en- 
lightened standard  of  life.  There  are  no  caste-fellows  to  cramp 
his  ambition.  There  is  no  uneducated  wife  or  mother  to  thwart 
him  at  every  turn.  He  has  no  child-wife  growing  up  with  him  to 
nip  his  youth  and  manhood  in  the  bud.  He  has  broken  with 
a  dozen  stale,  obsolete  customs  which  cramp  and  limit  the  energies 
of  his  heathen  countrymen.  A  Hindu  or  a  jMohanmiedan  with 
English  education  may  consider  himself  a  child  of  freedom  ;  but 
his  freedom  is  prison-life  as  compared  with  the  freedom  of  an 
Indian  Christian." 

He  sees  very  clearly  that  the  present  epoch  is  not  one  in  which 
the  native  Christians,  bewildered  by  their  many  opportunities,  and 


i6  The  English  Saints 

So  we  speak  of  nations  and  races,  and  we  see  them 
rising  towards  the  conception  of  their  place  in  the 
universe  which  God  designed  them  to  fill.  We  can 
see  clear  lines  of  change,  of  progress :  as  we  look  back 
over  centuries  we  can  see  the  influence  by  which,  as 
the  voice  of  Christ  is  heard, 

"The  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 

And  the  chains  are  the  lives  of  the  saints.  We 
cannot  estimate  the  influence  of  the  law  of  Christ 
solely  from  the  mass.  The  Divine  character  is  one 
that  judges,  and  sifts,  and  divides.  The  human  choice 
can  reject  the  ideal  of  Him  that  sanctifieth.  But  those 
who  are  admitted  to  have  reached  nearest  towards  it, 
they  are  the  evidence  of  its  supreme  value  and  truth. 
The  influence  of  Christianity  upon  natural  character 
is  to  be  traced  most  clearly  in  the  lives  and  legends  of 
the  Christian  saints. 

The  Lives  record  what  men  did  who  traced  their 
whole  belief,  their  whole  motive  power,  to  the  love  of 
Christ  constraining  them.  They  were  written  by  men 
who  saw  in  those  \\hom  they  commemorated  heroes 
of  faith  and  virtue.  Disciples  wrote  down  what  they 
had  seen  or  learnt  of  the  Master  whom  they  knew  and 


still  children  in  learning  how  to  use  them  and  how  to  discriminate, 
can  be  expected  to  do  much  direct  missionary  work  : 

"  The  missionary  epoch,"  he  says,  "  is  destined  to  be  but  one  of 
the  many  epochs  of  Indian  Church  history.  The  sons  of  the  present 
race  of  Indian  Christians  will  yet  be  the  religious  conquerors 
of  India." 

No  one  who  knows  the  early  history  of  England  can  doubt  that 
what  he  says  is  true. 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  17 

loved.  The  Acta  Sandonun  are  not  merely  records  of 
the  first  importance,  as  historians  have  come  to  recog- 
nise ;  but  they  are  of  unique  evidential  value  in  the 
history  of  the  human  soul.  And  the  legends  in  their 
different  manner  have  a  value,  too.  They  show  what 
qualities,  of  mercy  or  strength,  men  looked  for  in  those 
they  reverenced.  No  man  had  miracles  ascribed  to 
him  who  had  not  in  his  lifetime,  or  through  the  cause 
which  men  believed  him  to  represent,  been  one  who 
would  (if  it  were  possible)  perform  such  acts  of  love  or 
power.  Rarely  indeed  has  "  the  popular  worship  been 
w^asted  on  the  memory  of  selfish  ascetics."^  It  is  the 
miracle  of  a  holy  life,  where  "  He  that  sanctifieth  and 
they  that  are  sanctified  are  all  of  One,"  which  has  made 
the  miracles  that  hagiologists  have  set  down.  We 
have  truth  in  these  records,  not  least  where  we  can 
recognise  distortions :'-  and  the  truth  points  to  the  life 
of  God  realized  on  earth  in  Christ. 

But,  it  may  be  said,  these  are  the  abnormal  char- 
acters, in  which  you  trace  the  working  of  the  influence 
which  you  call  Divine.  You  cannot  argue  from  the 
abnormal.     The    ordinary    man   cannot   rise,    as  these 

^  Stubbs,  Preface  to  Monorials  of  S.  Dunsian,  1874. 

-  Fustel  de  Coulanges,  La  Monarchic  franquc,  p.  1 1  :  "  Soyons 
certains  que  Tautcur  n'a  pas  pu  tout  inventer  ;  sil  a  ajoute  quek|ues 
vertus  a  son  personnage,  11  n'a  pas  imagine  les  petits  details  de  sa 
vie  ;  il  a  depeint  des  habitudes  et  des  mouurs  qui  ctaient  vrais. 
Dans  chaque  miracle  qu'il  raconte,  ce  qui  nous  interesse  n'est  pas 
le  miracle,  ce  sont  les  details  qui  I'entourent,  c'est  Thomme  pour 
qui  le  miracle  a  ete  fait,  c'est  la  physionomie  de  cot  homme,  son 
ctat  civil,  sa  condition  sociale,  sa  conduite."'  Cf.  the  striking 
passage  on  the  importance  of  ecclesiastical  Lives  in  Sir  Thomas 
Hardy's  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  Materials,  etc.,  Preface,  pp.  xix 
sqq. 

2 


i8  The  English  Saints 

saints  believed  themselves  to  rise,  to  fellowship  with 
God.^  That,  we  must  reply,  is  not  the  Christian  view. 
The  saint  is  the  normal  Christian.  Every  Christian  is 
called  to  sainthness.  He  is  made  but  little  lower  than 
God.  The  ideal  character  is  before  him  for  imitation. 
He  that  sanctifieth  and  they  that  are  sanctified  are  all 
of  One.  The  saint  is  the  man  who  has  attained,  with 
perceptible  nearness,  to  the  normal  life  in  God.  Others 
have  not  reached  it  :  they  are  in  a  condition  of  arrested 
development.  Man  is  like  a  tree — I  borrow  the  illus- 
tration from  one  of  the  finest  critical  studies  in  modern 
literature  —  which  for  completeness  must  grow  both 
outward  and  upward.  Aspiration  and  sympathy  are 
as  essential  to  human  perfection  as  the  "  leader  "  and 
the  lateral  branches  are  to  the  development  of  the 
stately    tree.-     The    force   within — the    natural,    God- 

'  Thus  Professor  William  James,  in  his  fascinating  book,  TIic 
Varieties  of  Religious  Experience  (p.  45),  seems  to  take  as  most 
characteristic  what  is  most  one-sided,  and  throughout  to  treat  the 
saint  as  an  abnormal  creature,  to  whose  religious  experience  it 
would  not  be  wise,  even  if  it  were  possible,  for  every  man  to  attain. 

^  Edmond  Holmes,  Walt  Wliitmaiis  Poetry  :  a  Study  and  a 
Selection^  1902,  pp.  22,  39  :  E.g.^  "  Growth  ...  is  always  the 
outward  and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and  invisible  force.  In  the 
case  of  the  soul  this  inward  and  invisible  force  is  love.  Now  love 
is  of  two  kinds,  or  rather  it  energizes  in  two  principal  directions. 
On  the  one  hand  there  is  love  of  the  ideal,  the  love  that  lifts  us 
above  ourselves,  the  love  that  humbles  us  even  while  it  exalts  us, 
the  love  that  is  partly  compounded  of  reverence  and  that  looks  in 
the  direction  of  worship.  We  call  this  upward  movement  of  love 
aspiration.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  love  of  the  actual,  the 
love  that  carries  us  outside  ourselves,  the  love  that  neither  humbles 
us  nor  exalts  us,  the  love  that  makes  us  regard  all  things  as  our 
kith  and  kin.  We  call  this  outward  movement  of  love  sympathy. 
in  the  soul  that  is  growing  as  il  ought  to  grow— harmoniously  and 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  ig 

given  power — must,  if  it  freely  works,  both  elevate  and 
expand.  Where  it  has  not  free  course  the  soul  does 
not  enjoy  its  normal  life,  as  a  tree  "  pollarded  "  or  shut 
out  from  light  and  air  is  imperfect  and  unsymmetrical. 
The  power  is  given,  is  inherent  in  the  very  nature  ;  but 
it  can  be  checked  or  destroyed.^ 

It  is  no  question  of  numbers  or  proportion.  Health 
is  the  normal  state :  but  how  few  there  are  whom 
examination  pronounces  to  be  of  entire  physical  sound- 
ness !  The  "  abstractly  higher  type  "-  is  the  normal. 
The  saint  is  the  man  as  God  designed  him  :  so  the 
New  Testament  invariably  regards  him. 

"  God  does  not  wish  to  destroy  Nature  :  He  wishes  to 
perfect  it,''  says  S.  John  of  the  Cross,  and  he  declares 
that  the  perfection  of  the  saintly  character  is  largely 
dependent  on  its  being  engaged  in  the  works  suitable 

symmetrically — both  kinds  of  love  are  strong  and  active,  and 
neither  is  allowed  to  develop  itself  to  the  exclusion  or  even  to  the 
detriment  of  the  other "  (pp.  22,  23).  There  could  hardly  be  a 
better  description  of  the  character  of  the  true  saint.  I  cannot, 
however,  agree  that  "  in  the  Imitation  of  C/irist  the  growth  of  the 
soul  is  entirely  upward  "  (p.  72). 

^  "  Yet  there's  no  one  to  whom's  not  given 
Some  little  lineament  of  heaven  ; 
Some  partial  symbol,  at  the  least,  in  sign 
Of  what  should  be,  if  it  is  not,  within, 
Reminding  of  the  death  of  sin 
And  life  of  the  divine." 

H.  S.  Sutton  :  A  Prcaclicrs  Soliloquy. 

-  Cf.  Professor  James  {loc.  cit.,  p.  375) :  "  The  saint  is  abstractly 
a  higher  type  of  man  than  the  '  strong  man,'  because  he  is  adapted 
to  the  highest  society  conceivable,  whether  that  society  ever  be 
concretely  possible  or  not."  He  goes  on  to  show  that  he  is  using 
the  word  "saint"  throughout  his  book,  or  a  large  part  of  it,  in 
a  non-natural  sense. 

2 — 2 


20  The  English  Saints 

to  the  position  in  life  assigned  to  the  particular  person. 
All  the  powers  are  used  to  the  full,  but  "  all  are  trans- 
formed in  God."'^  And  so  Benedict  XIV.,  in  summing 
up  the  requisites  for  canonization,  says  simply,  "  It  is 
sufficient  that  there  be  proof  of  the  practice  of  those 
N-irtues  which  occasion  demanded,  in  an  eminent  and 
heroic  degree,  according  to  the  condition  in  life,  rank, 
circumstances,  of  the  person."-  Difference  in  the  results 
there  must  be,  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
person  :  but  the  difference  is  in  degree,  not  kind. 
The  saint,  whatever  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  is  the 
man  in  whom  "  the  ripe  fruits  of  religion  are  found,"  the 
mature  man,  in  w^hom  the  fulness  of  human  nature  is 
attained!^  What  his  experience  is  has  often  been  told  -^ 
it  is,  in  brief,  that  it  is  possible  to  know  God  and  to 
walk  with  Him  as  a  friend.  So  in  endless  variety  the 
lives  of  saints  exhibit  approaches,  near  and  intimate,  to 
the  character  which  Christ  set  before  the  world,  leaving 
us  an  example  that  we  should  follow  His  steps. 

And,  again,  Christianity  deals  with  individuals.  It 
is  through  them  that  it  affects  nations.  "  In  its  proper 
action,  its  purpose  and  its  business  is  to   make  men 

1  Quoted  by  M.  H.  Joly,  Psychology  of  the  Saints  (English  trans- 
lation, pp.  128,  129). 

^  De  Deatificationc  et  Canonizationc  Saiictoruni^  edit.  Rome, 
vol.  v.,  p.  303,  Lib.  III.,  cap.  xxi.  Thus  he  says  that  visions,  pro- 
phecies, miracles,  are  of  cjuite  secondary  importance  :  the  heroic 
virtues,  or  martyrdom  of  the  servant  of  God,  are  first  to  be  proved. 

^  Professor  James  uses  this  phrase:  "The  collective  name  for 
the  ripe  fruits  of  religion  in  a  character  is  saintliness  " — though 
yet  he  regards  the  saint  as  an  exceptional  development. 

■'  Never  more  eloquently  or  more  truly  than  by  W.  R.  Inge, 
Bampton  Lectures,  1899,  Christian  Mysticis/ii,  p.  326. 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  21 

saints  :"^  thus,  by  divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners 
it  acts  upon  the  world.  The  individual  teaches  and 
leads  the  world.  All  spiritual  advance  has  come  from 
the  saints  :'-  it  would  almost  be  true  to  say  that  the 
greatest  intellectual  discoveries  also  are  theirs. 

This  it  is  which  the  Church  has  recognised  when  she 
has  formally  declared  some  among  her  children,  in  the 
ages  since  Jesus  Christ  walked  upon  earth,  to  ha\c 
attained  to  pre-eminent  saintliness,  to  ha\c  won  fur 
themselves,  as  a  distinctive  title,  that  which  is  the 
heritage  of  all  Christians — the  name  of  "  saint." 

Canonization  is  the  recognition  of  the  solidarity  of 
the  Church.  At  first  it  was  the  spontaneous  tribute 
of  popular  veneration  for  those  who  had  given  their 
lives  for  Christ,  or  who  had  been  eminent  examples  of 
devotion.  Says  S.  Augustine,  before  there  was  any- 
thing formal  in  the  practice:  "  We  reverence  the  martyrs 
with  that  worship  of  affection  and  communion  which 
in  this  life  those  holy  men  of  God  receive  whose 
hearts  we  know  to  be  prepared  to  suffer  in  like  manner 
for  evangelic  truth,  but  so  much  the  more  fervently  as 
the  conflicts  of  the  martyrs  are  over  and  they  are  secure 
in  bliss." -^ 

Registers  of  names  were  kept  for  public  use,  and 
they  were  recited  at  the  Eucharist.  From  these 
diptychs  came  the  kalendars,  and  from  the  kalendars 
in    later   days    the    martyrologies.     Gradually,    as   the 

^  Dean  Church,  The  Gifts  of  Ch'ilisation,  p.  245. 

'-'  AI.  Joly  {Psychology  of  the  Saints,  p.  135)  goes  too  far  here. 

■'  Contra  Fatisttint,  xx.  i\  \  cf  S.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Catech. 
My  St.,  \.  II  ;  S.  Chrysostom,  Homil.  XLI.  in  i  Ep.  ad  Corinth., 
cx\-.  ;  cf.  Neale,  Eastern  Church,  p.  86. 


22  The  English  Saints 

custom  grew,  the  strictness  of  investigation  grew  wath 
it.  There  was  the  collection  of  acts  of  the  martyrs,  the 
examination  of  them,  the  inquiry  if  the  life  had  been 
passed  in  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  sifting 
of  the  motive  and  the  cause  of  martyrdom.^  So  with 
the  confessors,  those  who  died  in  peace  after  the 
exercise  of  heroic  virtues.  For  centuries  this  power 
was  exercised  locally  by  the  Bishops,  or  by  ecclesiastical 
Councils,  as  it  is  still  exercised  in  the  East.  To  quote 
only  English  cases :  the  Council  of  Cloveshoo,  in  747, 
fixed  the  veneration  of  S.  Gregory  on  his  birthday, 
March  12,  and  on  May  26,  his  burial-day,  that  of 
S.  Augustine,  Bishop  and  Confessor,  the  Apostle  of 
England."^ 

To  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages — and,  indeed,  beyond 
— formal  canonization  ^^•as  often  anticipated  by  the 
popular  voice.-^  At  Salisbury,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  people  had  long  paid  to  S.  Osmund  great  reverence, 
and  were  ready  to  take  up  his  body  and  translate  it  to 
a  shrine,  and  so  venerate  him  as  a  saint :  whereby  the 
Pope  (Nicholas  V.),  when  he  heard  it,  should  be  the 
more  quickly  inclined  to  canonize,  for  fear  that  Eng- 
land should  fall  away  from  his  obedience.'* 

^  S.  Cyprian,  Epist.,  y]  (Ed.  Benedict.),  orders  the  deaths  of 
martyrs  to  be  notified  to  him,  that  they  may  be  commemorated. 

2  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils^  iii.  368. 

^  So  the  present  Dean  of  Westminster  {A  Coinmemoraiifln  of 
King  Edzvard  the  Cofifessor,  pp.  7,  8),  using  language  practically 
true,  though  technically  incorrect,  when  he  says  of  Edward  that 
"  England  .  .  .  forgot  his  fatal  weakness  and  unwisdom,  and 
canonized  him  as  a  saint  and  a  confessor." 

'  "Qui  inde  dixit  quod,  si  hoc  esset  insertum  in  literis  dominorum, 
causarel  papam  se  citius  inclinare  ad  ipsum  canonizandum,  quia  tale 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  23 

Long  before  this,  of  course,  the  Popes  had  claimed 
the  sole  power  to  canonize,  and  had  won  a  general 
submission.^  Till  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  the 
action  of  the  Bishops  had  been  practically  unfettered. 
From  the  tenth  to  the  twelfth  the  approval  of  the  Pope 
was  generally,  if  not  always,  sought :  the  last  case  is 
said  to  be  that  of  S.  Gaucher  of  Pontoise."  From  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  century  the  Popes  asserted  the  right 
to  make  all  formal  canonizations,'^  and  it  was  yielded 
almost  without  dispute. 


factum  causaret  partes  nostras  ad  recedendum  ab  ejus  obedientia 
et  de  hoc  multum  timet  papa."  Letter  of  Simon  Huchyns  to  the 
Bishop  of  Sahsbury,  August  10,  1452,  Maiden,  Canonization  of 
S.  Osmund^  Wilts  Records  Society,  1901,  pp.  108-110. 

1  The  full  Roman  view  is  expressed  in  L.  Ferrari's  Pronipta 
Biblioihcca,  Rome,  1766,  tom.  vii.,  ff.  273-282.  "Canonizatio 
proprie  "  is  the  public  judgment  of  the  Apostolic  See.  "  Hinc 
plurimi  classici  doctores  tenent,  cjuod  sit  de  fide,  quod  Papa  non 
possit  errare,  non  solum  in  canonizatione  sed  etiam  in  beatifica- 
tione"  (p.  275). 

2  This  is  put  less  clearly  in  the  Bollandist  Ada  Sanctorum, 
April,  tom.  i.,  p.  853  :  "  Succedentibus  vero  temporibus,  ex  divina 
revelatione  canonizatus  fuit,  Sanctorumciue  catalogo  annotatus, 
tempore  Dni  Coelestini  Papte,  Prassulante  in  sede  Lemovicensi 
Diio  Sebrando,  c[ui  ex  praecepto  prtefati  Dili  Papa^  huius  sancti 
ossa  memoranda  et  veneranda  in  capsa  reposuit." 

^  As  to  the  actual  date  there  is  dispute.  Did  John  XV.  begin 
formal  canonization  in  the  case  of  S.  Udalric  (see  Pertz,  Mon. 
Germ.  Hist.,  iv.  377-428)  ?  Or  was  the  rule  first  definitely  stated 
by  Alexander  III.?  There  is  the  brief  of  Alexander  III.  {De- 
cretales,  tit.  45,  De  Relig.  et  Vener.  SS),  in  the  case  of  a  scandal 
reported  to  him  by  .\rnulf  of  Lisieux,  forbidding  to  "honour  as  a 
saint  without  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Church."  This  was  con- 
firmed by  Innocent  III.  and  Urban  VIII.  It  is  questioned  by 
Ferrari,  >;§  19,  20,  if  Leo  III.  in  804  did  not  begin  the  rule.  (See 
Daronius,  in  ann.)  But  the  letter  there  given  is  probably  not 
authentic.     (See  also  Ben.  XIV.,  De  Ven.  SS.,  vol.  i.,  pp.  62,  63.) 


24  The  EnCxLish  Saints 

The  right  was  based  on  a  series  of  disputable  asser- 
tions. There  must  be  a  secure  power  somewhere. 
Beatification  and  canonization,  as  they  became  distinct, 
must  be  assured  by  authority.  There  is  no  true 
sanctity,  no  true  Communion  of  Saints  but  in  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ :  and  to  the  head,  the  earthly 
head,  of  that  Church,  the  appeal  must  be  made.  It 
does  not  concern  us  to  criticise  the  claim,  though  it 
may  be  worth  while  to  repeat,  in  passing,  that  it  was 
from  time  to  time  disregarded,  in  most  European 
countries,  before  the  Reformation.  The  English 
Church  showed  its  independence  sufficiently  in  relation 
to  it. 


In  spite  of  this  some  episcopal  beatifications  were  "  tolerated.'  The 
ri^lit  was  denied  to  all  Piishops,  to  Metropolitans,  to  the  Curia 
when  the  Papacy  was  vacant :  and  the  Pope's  authority  to  canonize 
was  declared  \alid  without  a  Council.  The  case  of  S.  Roch, 
canonized  by  the  Council  of  Constance,  is  interesting.  The  store- 
house of  information  on  the  whole  subject,  and  the  standard 
authority  in  the  Roman  communion,  is  the  1 1c  Scrvoi-jim  Dei 
Beatifuatione  et  Beatoriim  Canonization c^  aittlwre  Prospero  de 
Lambertinis,  S.R.E.,  Cardinali  tit.  S.  Criicis  in  Hiertisalem,  An- 
concE  priiniini  episcopo,  postea  archiepiscopo  Bonouicp^  (afterwards 
Pope  Benedict  XIV.)  ;  first  edition,  4  vols.,  Bologna,  1734-38. 
He  completed  the  work  at  Bologna.  The  last  part,  written  in 
Italian,  was  translated  into  Latin  for  the  Roman  edition  of  his 
works.  The  matter  occupies  vols.  i.  to  vi.,  inclusive,  of  the  splendid 
Benedicti  XIV.  Pont.  Opt.  Max.  Opera  Omnia,  Venet.,  1767. 
My  own  copy,  which  I  have  chiefly  used,  is  the  Roman,  brought 
out  "sub  auspiciis  SS.  D.  nostri  Pii  Sexti,  P.O.M.,"  15  vols., 
Rome,  1787-92.  It  sounds  audacious  to  praise  such  a  book,  but 
as  it  is  little  known  among  Englishmen,  and  even  contemned 
by  the  one  Englishman  I  know  who  has  read  it — my  learned 
friend  Mr.  H.  W.  C.  Davis,  P'ellow  of  Balliol  — I  may  Ijc  allowed 
to  say  that  it  is  a  historical  thesaurus,  full  of  the  most  interesting 
matter,  collected  with  extraordinary  diligence. 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  25 

We  reach,  then,  to  sum  briefly  a  brief  survey,  a  period 
by  which  the  word  "  saint,"  used  freely  by  the  writers  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  thus  emphasizing  its  normal 
sense,  is  restricted,  in  strictly  technical  language,  to 
those  of  pre-eminent  holiness,  who  are  publicly  recog- 
nised to  have  attained  to  that  fellowship  with  God  which 
comes,  by  His  grace,  from  the  imitation  of  Him  Who 
came  to  sanctify,  and  in  Whom  alone  it  is  possible  to 
realize  the  Divine  kinship  and  to  know  that  "  He  that 
sanctifieth  and  they  that  are  sanctified  are  all  of  One." 
A  distinction  is  gradually  enforced  between  the  bcaftts, 
he  ^^•ho  b}-  special  concession  of  the  Pope  to  a  particular 
kingdom,  province,  religious  society,  or  locality,  may 
be  venerated  publicly,  with  exposition  of  relics,^  and 
the  sanctus,  he  who  by  public  judgment  and  express 
definition  of  the  Apostolic  See  is  solemnly  added  to  the 
roll  of  the  saints,  and  set  forth  for  the  public  veneration 
of  the  whole  Church  militant  with  all  the  honours  due 
to  saints.-  More  briefly,  the  difference  between  beatifi- 
cation and  canonization  may  be  said  to  be  that  in  one 
case  permission  is  given  to  honour  as  a  saint,  in  the 
other  there  is  a  command  to  do  so.^ 

The  authorities  recognise  in  the  process  a  distinction 
between  formal  and  equivalent  canonization.  The 
latter  is  the  case  of  the  saints  admitted  by  the  Popes 
on  the  evidence  of  an  ancient  cult,  with  the  testimony 
of  historians  and  of  continuous  miracles.-*     In  this  class 

1  Ferrari,  oj^.  cH.  -  Und. 

^  This  seems  to  be  the  conchision  of  r>cnedict  XI\'.,  Book  I., 
cc.  37-40,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  158-188.  'Jlie  matter  is  summed  up  pp.  i8o- 
188. 

*  Ferrari  says,  §§  24,  25,  that,  both  for  beatification  and 
canonization    (p.    276),  "Duo   copulative    rcquiruntur,  scilicet  ex- 


26  The  English  Saints 

are  placed,  not  only  the  early  Fathers  of  the  Church, 
but  later  saints,  such  as  Romwald,  Norbert,  Margaret  of 
Scotland,  Gregory  VI I.^  So  survives  still — recognised, 
as  it  were,  ungraciously — that  earliest  form  of  natural 
homage  and  reverence,  when  "  a  saint  was  a  saint,  as  it 
were,  by  acclamation  ";-  when  "the  saint  was  exalted 
by  the  popular  voice,  the  suffrage  of  the  people  with 
the  Bishop."^  And,  indeed,  on  that— on  the  popular 
reverence — even  the  most  technical  system  must  fall 
back.  Even  at  the  extreme  point  of  definition  and 
elaboration,  it  is  still  the  recognition  of  the  essential 
dignity  of  human  nature  as  brought  out  in  life, 
witnessed,  accepted,  acclaimed  by  men,  in  letters  of 
character  known  and  read  of  all,  that  stamps  the 
faltering  follower  of  Jesus  with  the  mark  of  achieve- 
ment. 

And  even  where  the  rigid  system  triumphed,  or  was 
on  the  point  to  triumph,  there  still  remained  in  all  its 
force  the  popular  element  in  the  practical  acceptance 
of  veneration,  in  the  cult  as  it  spread  throughout  the 
Church.     National  characteristics  were  represented  in 


cellentia  virtutum  in  gradu  heroico,  et  miracula,  ita  ut  nee  ex- 
cellentia  virtutum  sine  miraculis  nee  miracula  sine  virtutibui 
sufficiant,  sic  expresse  habetur  in  Constit.  Innocentii  III.,  edita 
pro  Canonizatione  Sancti  Homoboni  :  et  in  Constit.  4  Gregorii 
IX.,  cdita  pro  Canonizatione  mei  Sancti  Antonii  de  Padua  .  .  . 
Miracula  non  solum  in  vita  sed  pnucipue  post  obitum  sunt  ncces- 
saria  ad  beatificationem  et  canonizationem." 

'  Ibid.,  ii.  195  et  seq. 

''-  Milman,  Latin  Cli7-islianil\\  i\.  78. 

^'  How  S.  Martin  vindicated  the  Uishop's  jilace  in  the  decision, 
sec  Sulpicius  Severus,  Vita,  c.  xi.,  which  shows  that  Rome  had 
then  no  concern  in  the  matter. 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  27 

typical  saints:  racial,  or  historical,  or  local  associa- 
tions were  prominent  everywhere.  Nothing,  to  take 
the  great  example,  more  helped  to  keep  East  and  West 
apart  than  the  absence  of  reciprocal  veneration  of  holy 
men.  Hardly  before  the  terrible  havoc  of  the  capture 
of  Constantinople  by  the  unworthy  Crusaders  of  1204, 
when  Western  Europe  was  flooded  with  relics  of  the 
East,  when  even  the  head  of  the  great  patriarch  and 
preacher  of  New  Rome  was  brought  to  Pisa,  and  distant 
Halberstadt  was  made  glorious  (and  still  is)  by  the 
stolen  goods  of  pious  thieves,  did  Latin  Europe  know 
anything  of  those  who  had  confessed  or  been  martyred 
in  lands  that  no  longer  obeyed  the  Roman  Emperor  or 
Pope.  From  first  to  last,  "  of  the  countless  saints  of 
the  East,  few  comparatively  were  received  in  the  West. 
The  East  as  disdainfully  rejected  many  of  the  most 
famous  whom  the  West  worshipped  with  the  most 
earnest  devotion  ;  they  were  ignorant  even  of  their 
names.  It  may  be  doubted  if  an  Oriental  ever  uttered 
a  prayer  in  the  name  of  S.  Thomas  of  Canterbur}-," 
says  Milman  :^  and  the  converse  is  almost  as  true. 

The  veneration  of  saints  remained,  as  we  shall 
observe  later  on  in  many  instances,  largely  a  national, 
even  a  local,  matter.  It  had  its  expression  and  left  its 
records  in  hagiologies  and  kalendars.  Brief  reference 
onl}-  can  now  be  given  to  these,  and,  for  the  sake  of 
simplicity,  the  reference  shall  be  only  to  England. 

Early  collections  were  scanty,  and  made  almost  at 

1  Milman,  Latin  Christianity^  ix.  77.  How  many  Westerns, 
f(ir  example,  were  acquainted  with  S.  Andrew  of  Crete,  concern- 
ing whom  see  the  interesting  article  in  the  Echos  tfOricnt^ 
September,  1902,  by  S.  Vailhe  ? 


28  The  English  Saints 

haphazard.  Bede  began  to  collect  and  append  lives  to 
the  mere  lists  of  names  commemorated  in  the  Mass 
and  recorded  in  the  kalendars.  His  mart}'rolog3'  was 
fruitful,  and  his  imitators  have  left  valuable  work. 

Kalendars,  too,  grew  in  interest.  The  kalendar  of 
the  Leofric  Missal  is  interesting  as  showing  how  early 
the  English  Church  was  gradually  coming  to  restrict 
its  commemorations  to  the  saints  connected  ^^■ith  its 
own  interests.^  The  latest  entry  is  that  of  the  great 
Apostle  of  Germany,  who  died  in  755.-  In  a  kalendar 
comparatively  meagre  in  its  insertion  of  local  saints, 
eighteen  belong  to  England,  two  to  Ireland,  fifteen 
after  500  a.d.  to  Gaul  and  Lotharingia,  the  insertion 
of  these  latter  being  explained  by  the  nationality  of 
Bishop  Leofric.  Earlier  than  500  there  are  nineteen 
commemorations  of  Gaulish  saints  :  but  from  the  sixth 
century  England  had  her  own  saints,  and  from  the 
tenth  she  became  more  and  more  restricted  to  them 
in  her  records 

Evidence  of  the  popularity  of  different  saints  in  the 
Middle  Ages  can  be  obtained  from  different  martyrolo- 
gies."'  The  mart}rology  was  a  list  of  the  saints  to 
be    commemorated.     Each  large  Church  had  its  own 

'  "  On  arranging  tlie  names  of  the  saints  according  to  the 
centuries  in  whicli  they  died,  it  is  found  that,  with  four  exceptions, 
every  saint  after  a.d.  500  is  connected  with  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  or  France"  [Gaul]  (Warren,  Leofric  Missal,  Introduction, 
p.  xlviii. 

-  Ibid.,  p.  xlix. 

^  Interesting  information  as  to  the  spread  of  knowledge  about  tlie 
saints  of  other  countries  may  be  found  from  the  study  of  martyr- 
ologies  :  take,  for  example,  the  number  of  English  saints  in  those 
of  Fulda  and  Trier.     See  Atialccta  Bollandiana^  i.  1 1,  and  ii.  7. 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  2g 

edition,  from  which  was  read  daily  after  prime  the 
passage  naming  those  to  be  remembered  on  the  morrow. 
It  was,  as  it  were,  a  private  memorial  to  stimulate 
devotion  at  the  public  offices  :  and  with  this  aim  it  was 
that  vernacular  translations  in  different  countries  were 
drawn  up  for  "  the  edification  of  religious  persons 
unlearned."  Such  was  the  "  Martiloge  after  the  use 
of  the  Chirche  of  Salisbury,  and  as  it  is  read  in  Syon, 
with  Additions,"  which  was  printed  by  Wynkyn  de 
Worde  in  1526.^  This  is  especially  interesting  as  an 
illustration  of  the  late  medieval  cult  of  saints.  It 
belongs  to  the  period  when  the  name  of  S.  Thomas 
of  Canterbury  had  been  erased  from  all  books  of  prayer 
by  order  of  Henry  \  III.,  but  otherwise  it  represents 
a  widespread  usage  sanctioned  by  time.  It  was  pro- 
bably, like  all  other  English  martyrologies,  based  on 
that  of  Usuard  (ninth  century),  "  with  additions  of 
English  saints,  selected  according  to  local  circum- 
stances."- It  has,  however,  few  variations  from  earlier 
English  kalendars. 

In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  the  great 
work  in  hagiology  was  inaugurated.  In  the  slowly- 
won  conquests  of  Englishmen  in  the  West,  legends 
of  the  Goidelic  and  Brythonic  Celts  were  collected, 
adapted,  castigated.  Latinized,  and  brought  forward 
(by  men  who  tried  to  rival  in  the  ecclesiastical  field 
the  work  of  Geoffrey  uf  Monmouth  in  the  political) 
for  the  veneration  of  English   and   Welsh  alike.'^     In 

1  Edited  by  E.  Proctor  and  E.  S.  Dewick  :  Henry  riradshaw 
Society,  1893. 

2  Martiloge,  edit.  1893,  Preface,  p.  xi. 

3  See  Willis  Bund,  Celtic  Church  in  Wales,  pp.  6,  9  ct  scq.j  cf. 
Edmund  Bishop  in  Dublin  Review,  January,  1885,  pp.  123-126. 


30  The  English  Saints 

North  and  Middle  England,  Goscelin,  Ailredof  Rievaulx' 
and  others,  searched  everywhere  for  materials,  and 
amplified  what  they  had  collected. ^  Ailred'-  seems  to 
ha\'e  been  a  scholar  of  the  gracious  and  courtly  type, 
soft  and  sweet  of  speech,  keenly  interested  in  the  days 
of  old  and  the  memories  of  God's  holy  ones,  beloved 
by  those  among  whom  he  dwelt ;  and  his  work,  in 
which  the  literary  society  of  his  day,  small  but  vigorous, 
took  keen  interest,  had  much  effect.  The  influence  of 
the  "  Golden  Legend  "  of  Jacobus  de  Voragine'^  (circa 
1292)  at  last  led  to  the  compilation  of  a  complete 
national  collection  :  the  "  Sanctilogium  Angliae  WaUise 
Scotije  et   Hibernia;^ "  of  John  of  Tynemouth'*  in    the 

'  Of  the  work  of  Ailred  there  will  be  many  instances  later  on. 
His  own  biography  is  given  from  Bodleian  MS.,  240  in  A'ovti 
Lcgcnda^  vol.  ii.,  pp.  544  et  scq. 

'^  The  life  of  Ailred,  in  Dr.  Newman's  Lives  of  tlie  Saints^  by 
J.  15.  Dalgairns,  is  written  very  much  in  .^ilred's  own  style. 

^  There  was  in  England,  though,  perhaps,  to  a  lesser  extent  than 
abroad,  a  gradual  growth  of  legend,  leading  to  the  manufacture  of 
lives  which  pretended  to  be  contemporary.  "  Enfin,  au  xiii  Siecle, 
la  Legende  doree  de  Jacques  de  Voragine  marque  le  dernier  terme 
de  cette  evolution,  et  ce  livre  niais,  que  certains  qualifient  encore  de 
naif,  sert  de  modele  a  la  plupart  des  compositions  plus  rdcentes." 
— See  Les  Sources  de  P Histoire  de  Frajice,  epoque  priinitixie^  Meo- 
rovingieits  et  Corolingiens  (Augustine  Molinier),  1902. 

■*  Nova  Legettda  Anglie,  as  collected  by  John  of  Tyneinouth^ 
John  Capgrave,  and  others,  a7id  first  printed,  with  New  Lives,  by 
Hynkyn  de  Worde,  a.  d.  MDXUI.  Now  re-edited,  with  I'^esJi 
Material  from  MS.  and  Printed  Sources,  by  Carl  Horstinnn,  Ph.D. 
In  1 5 16  Wynkyn  de  Worde  printed  his  famous  edition  of  these 
legends.  Dr.  Horstman  has  fully  revised  the  text  by  collating 
it  with  the  Cotton  MS.  Tiberius  E.  i.  ;  and  in  each  case  he  has 
employed  a  very  large  number  of  materials,  both  printed  and 
M.S.,  in  the  work  of  further  revision.  He  has  added  also  Ros- 
carrok's    Life    <f   S.    Christina    (who    was    esi)ecially    venerated 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  31 

second  quarter  of  the  fourteenth  century.  This  was 
rearranged,  probably  by  Capgrave,  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  This,  again,  with  additions,  was  printed  by 
Wynkyn  de  Worde.  Dr.  Horstman,  whose  laborious 
edition,  unhappily  still  not  quite  complete,  has  been 
published  by  our  University  Press,  has  restored  and 
mended  the  text,  and  in  course  of  his  investigations 
has  discovered  several  unknown,  or  little  known,  manu- 
scripts, from  which  he  has  obtained  valuable  assistance. 
Of  the  relation  of  this  collection  of  lives  of  saints  to 
general  hagiology  he  well  says  : 

"  In  England,  where  the  national  idea  has  always 
been  prominent  as  against  the  'foreigner,'  and  was 
then  intensified  by  the  French  wars,  the  idea  sprang  up 
of  forming  a  legendary  of  exclusively  English  saints, 
though  the  saints  themselves  would  have  objected  to 
being  so  'nationalized,'  the  idea  of  saintship  —  the 
imitation  of  the  Son  of  Man  —  being  incompatible 
with  national  exclusiveness.  This  idea  rose  in  John 
of  Tynemouth,  and  in  executing  it  he  created  a  truly 
national  work,  which  deserves  to  rank  among  the 
treasures  of  England." 

There  is  to  the  purely  historical  student  a  consider- 
able advantage  in  having  a  single  collection  of  national 
saints.  The  study  of  national  history  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  of  the  development  of  national  characteristics, 
is  greatly  facilitated  by  no  longer  needing  resort  to  the 


at  S.  Albans)  ;  several  additional  Lives  by  John  of  Tynemouth,  from 
Bodleian  MS.  240 ;  and  the  Life  of  S.  Fremundus,  King  and 
Martyr,  and  nephew  of  S.  Edmund,  from  a  MS.  at  Trinity  College, 
Dublin. 


32  The  English  Saints 

great  Bollandist  collection  in  order  to  disentangle  the 
particular  and  local  interest.  The  collection  before  us 
is,  says  Dr.  Horstman,  "  as  complete  as  possible,  and 
the  amount  of  materials  brought  together  by  one  man 
is  truly  astonishing."  John  of  Tynemouth  found  the 
libraries  open  and  the  constant  help  of  friendly  com- 
peers ;  and  in  his  survey  he  exhausted  nearly  all  the 
materials  then  known  to  exist,  English  or  foreign, 
chronicled  or  in  separate  documents.  His  work  is  thus 
of  the  greatest  value  as  a  complete  compilation  and 
abridgement ;  and  in  some  cases  his  lives  are  the  only 
sources  now  left,  the  primitive  lives  having  been  lost  or 
destroyed  since  the  fourteenth  century.  To  each  life  is 
added  a  Translatio  and  Minicula,  and  frequently  a 
highly  entertaining  Narratio,  from  which  last  many  very 
interesting  social  facts  can  be  learned.  Of  John  him- 
self. Dr.  Horstman  gives  a  most  laborious  and  interesting 
account  and  identification,  and  he  shows  for  the  first 
time  that  he  fills  the  supposed  vacuum  in  the  line 
of  the  S.  Albans  chroniclers  ;  and  that  in  other  works 
of  his  he  is  among  the  chief  original  sources  for  the 
reign  of  Edward  HI.  His  life,  by  acute  investigation 
and  reasoning,  is  fixed  as  between  ligo  and  13-^9.^ 

England  thus  took  her  share  in  collecting  and  pre- 
serving the  lives  and  legends  of  the  saints,  a  task 
undertaken   abroad    by  great  scholars,"   and    by  those 

'  1  have  here  roughly  analyzed  the  chief  points  of  Dr.  liorstnian's 
Introduction. 

-  .Sec  the  summary  of  Dr.  M.  R.  James,  Cambridge  Modern 
hish»y,  vol.  i.,  p.  610.  A  characteristic  (and  late)  example  of  the 
second  class  is  A.  Gallonius,  De  Sanctorwn  Martyruin  Cruciatibus^ 
Cologne,  16 1 2. 


Th]-:  Witness  or  the  Saints  33 

who  popularized  their  work,  as  well  as  by  those  who 
wrote  solely  for  edification. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  Aloysius  Lippomanus  of 
Verona/  and  the  Carthusian,  Laurence  Surius  of 
Cologne, 2  made  great  collections  :  and  Bolland  began 
his  great  work  in  1643.  There  were  famous  English 
collections  also,  made  from  the  work  of  John  of  Tyne- 
mouth,  notably  Capgrave's,  and  that  anonymous 
hagiology  of  women  saints  of  our  country,^  which 
quaintly  set  out  the  beauty  of  the  old  lives  when  the 
Reformation  had  come  and  gone. 

But  John  of  Tynemouth's  work  and  that  of  his 
successors  is,  of  course,  not  primarily  of  historical 
interest  alone ;  its  aim  was  religious.  And  it  is  curious 
to  compare  it  with  the  kalendar  of  the  English  Church 
as  revised  during  the  period  of  the  Reformation.  After 
a  series  of  changes,'*  of  suggestions  that  never  reached 
the  stage  of  acceptance  if  of  discussion,  and  of  formal 
revisions,  the  kalendar  was  drawn  up,  practically  as 
it  now  stands,  in  1561.^ 

It  stands  in  the  Prayer- Book  to-day,  with  all  its 
imperfections  —  and    they    are    many'' — as    England's 

^  Historia  de  Vit.  SS.,  Rome,  1 551-1560. 

2  Be  Probatis  SS.  Hist.,  Cologne,  1570-1575. 

^  The  Lives  of  Women  Saiftts.,  etc.  {circa  1610-1615):  Early 
English  Text  Society,  1886. 

*  I  had  hoped  to  discuss  these  changes  and  their  importance 
fully,  but  I  find  it  impossible.  I  will  only  refer  the  reader  to 
an  extremely  valuable  paper  on  the  subject,  by  the  Rev.  Canon 
F.  E.  Warren,  in  the  Guardian.,  July  22,  1891. 

•^  With  one  addition  in  1604  and  two  in  1662. 

"  Notably  the  inadeciuate  and  inconsistent  treatment  of  the 
English  saints,  with  the  omission  of  S.  Alban  and  seven  English 
saints— viz.,  S.    Wulfstan    of  Worcester,   f    1095    (January    19)  ; 

3 


34  The  English  Saints 

proclamation  of  her  share  in  the  Hfe  of  the  Church 
Universal,  in  the  unity  of  the  Divine  Sanctifier  and 
those  who  are  sanctified  in  the  Communion  of  Saints. 

Here,  then,  with  the  kalendar  for  guide,  and  with 
the  materials  of  English  hagiologists,  we  may  look  to 
find  for  England  an  answer  to  the  inquiry  how  the 
national  character  has  been  at  once  moulded  and 
expressed  by  the  lives  of  the  saints.  What  influence 
has  Christianity  really  had  ?    Let  these  records  answer. 

But — let  it  not  be  forgotten- — the  answer,  significant 
though  it  be,  of  such  lives  is  only  a  fragment  of  the 
whole  response  of  the  Communion  of  Saints.  The 
saints  of  the  kalendar  are  but  flowers  plucked  from 
the  full  field  of  Christian  holiness.  "  As  for  us  " — they 
are  beautiful  words  of  S.  Antonino  of  Florence  quoted 
in  the  old  Life  of  S.  Teresa — "  as  for  us  whose  path 
is  surrounded  by  shadows,  so  far  as  we  are  allowed  to 
judge  of  the  saints  by  what  we  know  and  presume  of 
their  works,  I  think  that  none  can  doubt  but  that  many 
of  the  blessed  of  each  sex  who  have  not  been  canonized 
by  the  Church,  nor  even  mentioned  by  her,  have  not 
been  less  worthy  or  less  glorious  than  many  who  have 
been  canonized."^ 


S.  Cuthbert  of  Lindisfarne,  f  687  (March  20);  S.  Aldhelm  of 
Sherborne,  f  709  (May  25)  ;  S.  Osmund  of  Sahsbury,  f  1099 
(December  4)  ;  and  three  virgins — viz.,  S.  Edith  of  Wilton,  f  9^4 
(September  16)  ;  S.  Frideswide  of  Oxford,  f  735  (October  19)  ; 
and  S.  Winifred  of  Holywell,  seventh  century  (November  3). 

^  "Unas  palabras  de  S.  Antonino,"  etc.,  in  the  Vuia  de  S.  Teresa 
de  Jesus,  por.  el  p.  Fr.  de  Ribera.  I  am  obliged  to  quote  from 
the  Latin  Vita  B.  Matris  Teresa;  de  lesu  Carmelitarimi  excal- 
ceatoruni  [etc.] .  Aiictore  R.  P.  Francisco  Ribera  ex  Hispatiico 
sermone  in  Latinuni  converiebat  Matthias  Martinez,  because    I 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints 


35 


The  fame  of  the  great  saints  is  not  subject  to  change, 
and  their  inheritance  is  enduring  :  they  have  a  true 
ApostoHc  succession.  Yet  they  shine  not  alone,  but 
as  the  great  constellations  in  the  heaven  spangled  with 
stars.  When  the  memory  of  others  is  forgotten  theirs 
lingers,  and  is  eloquent  above  the  noise  of  unhappy 
divisions,  as  voices  pleading  in  Christ  for  godly  union 
and  concord. 

"  And  in  the  after-silence  sweet, 
Now  strife  is  hushed,  our  ears  doth  meet. 
Ascending  pure,  the  bell-Hke  fame 
Of  this  or  that  down-trodden  name. 
Delicate  spirits,  pushed  away 
In  the  hot  press  of  the  noon-day. 
And  o'er  the  plain,  where  the  dead  age 
Did  its  now  silent  warfare  wage — 
O'er  that  wide  plain,  now  wrapt  in  gloom. 
Where  many  a  splendour  finds  its  tomb, 
Many  spent  fames  and  fallen  mights — 
The  one  or  two  immortal  lights 
Rise  slowly  up  into  the  sky 
To  shine  there  everlastingly, 
Like  stars  over  the  boundinfj  hill. 
The  epoch  ends,  the  world  is  still."  ^ 


cannot  get  a  copy  of  the  Spanish,  and  the  Bodleian  Library  has 
none  :  "Aliqua  hie  depropta  verba  D.  Antonini  Archiep.  Floren. 
Quantum  autem  nobis  (qui  tenebris  involuimur)  permittitur  iudicare 
de  Sanctis,  per  conjecturas  et  prgesumptiones  ex  gestis  eorum 
arbitror  ambigere  neminem,  plurimos  Beatos  utriusque  sexus  non 
canonizatos  ab  Ecclesia,  imo  nee  nominatos,  non  fuisse  minoris 
meriti,  et  inferioris  glorias  multis  Catalogo  Sanctorum  adscriptis. 
Non  nam  canonizatio  adjicit  ad  meritum,  vel  praemium  essentiale 
Beatorum,  nee  decernit  sanctitatis  gradum,  sed  venerationem 
temporalem  et  gloriam,  ut  post  ipsam  possit  solemniter  ofificium 
celebrari  et  festivari,  quod  alias  fieri  non  dicitur"  (p.  469). 
1  New  Poems,  by  Matthew  Arnold,  p.  176. 


36  The  English  Saints 

They  show  what  is  possible  by  their  splendours  of 
achievement  in  victory  and  sacrifice.  They  show 
the  life  of  matured  growth.  They  are  raised  for 
ensample,  after  the  manner  of  Him  Whom  they  followed 
and  Who  made  them  holy. 

And  thus  "  the  histories  of  the  saints  are  written  as 
ideals  of  a  Christian  life ;  they  have  no  elaborate  and 
beautiful  forms  ;  single  and  straightforward  as  they 
are,  if  they  are  not  this  they  are  nothing.  For  fourteen 
centuries  the  religious  mind  of  the  Catholic  world 
threw  them  out  " — the  words  are  the  well-known  ones 
of  James  Anthony  Froude^— "as  its  form  of  hero 
worship,  as  the  heroic  patterns  of  a  form  of  human 
life  which  each  Christian  within  his  own  limits  was 
endeavouring  to  realize." 

One  word  in  conclusion  as  wc  pause  at  the  entrance 
to  our  survey.  Let  no  man  think  that  it  is  possible 
truly  to  understand  these  lives  without  stud}-ing,  and 
living,  measureless  though  the  distance  of  the  imita- 
tation,  the  life  of  Christ  the  Master.  "  He  is  only 
perfect    and    fulfilled   when    He    is   united   to    all   Flis 

1  SJiort  Studies  on  Great  Subjects  (1881),  vol.  i.,  p.  557.  Cf.  S. 
Wulfstan's  consolation  of  his  friends  when  he  lay  dying  :  "  Cessent 
gemitus,  vacent  flatus,  non  est  enim  ista  vitte  amissio,  sed  \\\.-xt 
commutatio.  Neque  umquam  vobis  deero,  sed  quanto,  lutea 
compage  soluta,  Deo  fuero  proesentior,  tanto  ero  in  auxiliam 
celerior.  Me  impetrante,  accedet  vobis  prosperitas,  me  propulsante, 
discedet  adversitas.''  "  Felix  lingua,"  adds  William  of  Malmes- 
Ijury,  "tjuie  de  abundanti  penu  conscientias  tarn  secura  verba  in 
hominum  aures  auderet  effundere.  Alii  suspiriis  et  singultibus 
agunt  ut  pro  sc  oretur,  ille  pro  aliis  se  oraturum  pollicebatur.  Quid 
istuc  est  miraculi?  An  nullius  peccati  conscius  erat  ?  Immo 
loquebatur  sancta  simplicitas  ;  simplicitas  nescia  de  Dei  ditifidere 
misericordia"  (William  of  Malmesbury,  Gcsta  PoiUficuiii^  edit. 
Hamilton,  pp.  287,  288). 


The  Witness  of  the  Saints  37 

members,  the  saints."^  They  are  only  understood  in 
the  hght  of  His  sanctification,  for  "  He  that  sanctifieth 
and  they  that  are  sanctified  are  all  of  One."  In  the 
words  of  S.  Leo  the  Great :  "  He  so  adorns  the  \\'hole 
body  of  the  Church  by  unnumbered  bestowals  of 
spiritual  gifts  that  by  the  rays  of  One  Light  the  same 
splendour  is  everywhere  manifest :  nor  can  the  merit 
of  any  Christian  be  aught  else  than  the  glory  of 
Christ."-  The  union  of  the  saints  with  the  Sanctificr 
is  not  only  that  of  His  nature  with  theirs,  but  that 
which  they  have  with  His.^ 

You  may  begin  your  study  with  the  belief  that  here 
is  all  history,  or  anthropology,  or  a  problem  of  psycho- 
logy or  philosophy,  but  you  are  brought  up  before 
you  have  lived  long  in  the  company  of  these  heroes 
of  faith  by  an  invincible  consciousness  that  either  all 
this  is  a  reflection,  a  reproduction  of  something  that 
is  eternally  true,  a  "sweet  plagiarism"*  of  the  life  of 
Christ,  or  the  whole  is  meaningless  and  inexplicable — 
it  never  happened,  truth  of  life  is  not  truth,  and  evi- 
dence brings  no  conclusion.  In  the  end  all  returns 
to  Christ.  These  lives  are  no  delusion,  for  they  have 
profoundly  and  permanently  affected  men ;  and  they 
are  all  based,  built  on  Christ,  and  are,  in  Him,  the 
manifestation  of  eternal  truth  among  outward  things. 

1  M.  Olier,  Lettrcs,  ii.  475. 

'■^  Serm.  LXIII.  {De  Passionc  Domini^  xii.). 

^  "  Not  merely  the  union  which  He  has  with  our  nature,  but  the 
union  which  we  have  with  His"  (Wilberforce,  The  Incarnation, 
p.  203) :  and  "  It  is  Christ's  manhood  which  binds  men  tlnough 
Sacraments  to  His  mystic  body"  {Ibid.,  p.  232). 

*  I  think  the  phrase  is  that  of  Archl:)ishop  Alexander,  but  I 
do  not  know  where  it  is  to  be  found. 


LECTURE   II 

NATIONAL  SAINTS 

"  And  He  showed  me  a  river  of  water  of  life,  bright  as  crystal, 
proceeding  out  of  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb,  in  the  midst 
of  the  street  thereof.  And  on  this  side  the  river  and  on  that  was 
the  tree  of  life,  bearing  twelve  [kinds  of]  fruits,  yielding  its  fruit 
every  month  :  and  the  leaves  of  the  tree  were  for  the  healing  of 
the  nations." — Rev.  xxii.  i,  2. 

The  inspired  Seer  is  looking  for  the  salvation  of  men 
through  the  gifts  of  God,  the  "  fruits  of  Paradise  "  of 
the  Book  of  Esdras^  "  wherein  is  healing."  It  is  a 
prophecy  of  which  the  lives  of  the  saints  are  the  vivid 
presentation  in  the  histor}^  of  Christendom. 

The  Gospel  of  Christ,  the  power  of  Him  Who 
sanctifies,  act  in  different  nations  by  divers  portions 
and  in  divers  manners.  Each  race  has  its  contribu- 
tion of  character  to  bring,  transformed  and  vivified  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  into  the  Holy  City.  As  the  water 
of  life  makes  fertile  the  land,  the  trees  bear  their  fruit, 
of  different  kinds,  but  all  good  :  and  with  the  fruit 
come  also  from  the  tree  the  leaves  that  heal  old  sores, 
and  bring  new  life  in  grace. 

The  common  features  of  saintliness  are  indelible  : 
but  the  infinite  character,  the  Divine,  which   is  to  be 

1   2  Esdras  vii.  53  (123). 
[38] 


National  Saints  39 

imaged  among  men,  implies  for  its  presentation  by 
human  agents  a  variety  which  yet  does  not  hide  the 
central,  the  essential  unit}-,  "  The  world's  hymn  which 
mounts  up  to  God  is  a  harmony,  not  a  unison."^  No 
leaf  is  exactly  like  its  fellow  on  the  same  tree.  The 
single  thought  of  God  is  manifested  in  endless  variety. 
In  the  tendency  to  vary  biologists  have  found  a  spring 
of  all  progress.  National  characteristics  cannot  be 
ignored  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  If  in 
the  Church  the  spring  of  progress  comes  from  the 
inspiration  which  stirs  to  life  all  that  is  lovely  and  of 
good  report,  if  it  modifies  and  elevates  rather  than 
simply  accepts  national  characteristics,  it  is  always  in 
and  through  them  that  it  acts.  There  is  in  a  sense 
One  Type  alone  for  the  disciple,  but  in  another  sense 
there  are  national  types  which  emphasize  particular 
qualities  that  are  touched  and  sanctified  by  Christ. 

And  this  has  always  been  recognized  by  the  nations 
as  they  lived  in  the  fold  of  the  Church.  One  type  of 
character,  strong  with  distinct  and  obvious  excellences, 
has  appealed  to  them,  one  by  one,  as  showing  forth 
best  the  Hfe  of  Jesus  for  example  among  men.  It  has 
been  a  type  which  has  represented  what  most  their 
best  and  wisest  spirits  knew  that  they  lacked  :  or  it  has 
been  one  which  has  shown  in  full  purity  and  strength 
the  virtues  which  seemed  inherent  in  the  character  of 
the  whole  people.     The  influence  may  have  been  one 

1  W.  C.  E.  Newbolt,  Priestly  Blemishes,  p.  153.  Of  the  indi- 
vidual the  writer  well  says  "  It  is  all-important  that  we  should 
remember  that  our  perfection  lies  in  the  direction  of  developing 
what  we  are,  and  that  God,  Who  made  no  leaf  like  its  fellow 
on  the  same  tree,  wishes  that  man  should  cultivate  unity  in 
variety." 


40  The  English  Saints 

of  contrast,  or  of  familiar  example  raised  to  its  highest 
power :  but  in  each  case  it  has  knit  itself  into  the 
national  life,  so  that  each  great  nation  is  fitly  repre- 
sented in  its  contribution  to  the  Catholic  sum  of  virtues 
by  saints  as  it  were  of  its  own  choice,  whom  the 
popular  reverence  has  hallowed. 

A  significant  example  meets  us,  at  our  starting-point, 
in  the  history  of  the  Eastern  Church. 

No  more  complete  example  of  the  union  of  the 
national  hero  with  the  national  saint  can  be  found 
than  in  Russia.  After  the  half-legendary  Olga  comes 
the  great  converter  King.  Far  more  than  Alfred  the 
West  Saxon,  S.  Vladimir  the  Great  (?  968-1052)  is  the 
t\'pe  of  the  unity  of  the  nation  in  Christ.^  "  The 
Clovis  of  Russia,"  a  sensual  and  passionate  barbarian,- 
felt  amidst  his  profligacies  the  need  of  a  religion  that 
could  elevate  and  control.  In  turn  the  Bulgarians  of 
the  Volga  urged  him  to  accept  Islam,  Germans  the 
Christianity  of  the  Pope,  Jews  the  Judaism  of  the 
medieval  Rabbis.  Acutely  he  questioned  each  ;  and 
he  accepted  none.     By  slow  argument  a  wise  man  of 

^  The  great  authority  for  S.  Vladimir  is  the  Chronicle  of  Nestor 
{Nestorova  Hi pervonaehalnaya  Lyeiopis),  of  primary  value  for  the 
period  from  the  second  half  of  the  ninth  century  to  the  beginning 
of  the  twelfth.  I  use  the  edition  of  M.  Louis  Ldger,  Paris,  1884 
{Publications de Vccole  des  langues  orientates  vivantes).  An  earlier 
but  vague  authority  is  the  monk  Jacob.  See  M.  Lager's  Introduc- 
tion, p.  viii.  Nestor,  chapters  xl.-xlvii.  Nestor  also  contains  much 
about  Olga  (chapters  xxi.,  xxvii.,  xxix.-xxxi.,  xxxiv.). 

^  See  Thietmar,  C/iron.,  vii.  52.  Rambaud,  Histoire  de  la  Russie^ 
ed.  4,  1893,  pp.  55,  56.  C^ibbon,  speaking  of  his  marriage,  adds 
characteristically,  "Wolodomir  and  Anne  are  ranked  among  the 
saints  of  the  Russian  Church.  Yet  we  know  his  vices,  and  are 
ignorant  of  her  virtues." 


National  Saints  41 

the  Greeks,  pointing  his  lessons  by  the  holy  pictures 
which  he  carried,  won  him  to  the  faith  of  the  Crucified : 
and  when  his  envoys  came  back  from  Constantinople 
with  tales  of  its  glory  he  accepted  the  religion  of  his 
grandmother  Olga,  and  won  a  wife  from  Ikisil  and 
Constantine,  the  Emperors  of  Rome.  He  returned 
from  the  Greek  city  of  Kherson  a  Christian  and  a 
missionary.  The  picture  of  the  Last  Judgment^  that 
had  won  him  from  his  sins  seemed  ever  before  his 
e3'es.  If  he  converted  his  people  by  force,  a  stronger 
argument  was  the  change  of  his  life.  Chaste,  peace- 
able, generous,  the  words  were  alwa\-s  on  his  lips  when 
men  asked  him  to  punish  the  crimes  of  others,  "  I  fear 
to  sin."  He  is  the  great  Slav  saint,  to  whom  the 
historians  and  the  people  looked  back  as  the  native 
hero,  the  type  of  Russian  civilization.  Russian  art  as 
well  as  Christianity  dates  from  his  magnificence  of 
patronage.  He  is  the  first  of  the  great  prince  saints 
who  taught  the  Russians  to  find  their  Fathers  in  the 
leaders  of  the  Christian  State  no  less  than  among  the 
priests.  He  stands  in  the  East  like  Clovis,  or  .-Ethel- 
berht,  or  Eadwine,  Stephen  of  Hungary,  or  Olaf  of 
Norway,  the  founder  of  a  Christian  people.- 

From  him  the  saints  of  Russia  take  their  tone.  The 
popular  martyrs,  Boris  and  Glyeb,  master  and  servant, 
brothers  in  love,^  were  murdered  by  the  heathen 
Sviatopolk,  and  the  memory  of  their  heroism  was  never 
forgotten.     Eighty  years  after  their  death  their  festival 

1  Nestor,  cap.  xl. 

■■^  So  the  great  statue  now  at  Kiev,  where  he  stands  holding  the 
Cross  and  overlooking  the  Dnyepr  where,  in  988,  he  saw  his  people 
baptized. 

•^  Nestor,  cap.  Iwii. 


42  The  English  Saints 

was  already  the  most  popular  in  the  Russian  Kalendar.^ 
They  typified  renunciation,  as  Vladimir  typified  mis- 
sionar}^  zeal.  Theirs  was  the  strong,  silent  endurance 
which  lies  at  the  heart  of  all  that  is  best  in  Russian 
life.  It  appears  again  in  S.  Alexander  Nevski,  the 
"  Camillus  of  Novgorod,"  warrior  and  statesman,  a 
noble  figure  in  days  of  darkness  and  humiliation  when 
Russia  was  under  the  heel  of  the  Mongols.  He  held 
out  bravel}'  against  the  Western  Powers:  Innocent  III. 
in  vain  tried  to  procure  his  submission  to  the  Papal 
claims.  Here  he  was  a  true  national  hero.  But  in  his 
submission  to  the  Mongols  and  his  preservation  of  his 
people  from  destruction  at  their  hands  he  showed  again 
that  strength  to  endure  and  wait  which  gave  in  the  end 
the  victory  to  his  nation.  The  regeneration  of  Russia 
finds  its  beginning  in  his  work,- 

The  same  mark  lies  on  all  the  saints  of  that  great 
Empire.  Zosima  and  Savvatii,  whose  shrines  are  pre- 
served   in    the   great    monastery   of  Solovetski   on  the 

1  When  Poland  (through  Lithuanian  conquests  and  union  of 
crowns  of  Lithuania  and  Poland)  obtained  West  Russia,  the  Poles 
found  it  necessary  to  conciliate  their  Russian  subjects  by  putting 
the  festival  of  SS.  Boris  and  Glyeb  into  the  Roman  Kalendar  as 
that  of  SS.  Romanus  and  David — which  names  Boris  and  Glyeb 
had  also  received  in  baptism.  Cf.  P.  Verdiere,  Origiiics  Catholiques 
de  Pe'glise  ritsse,  Paris,  Lanier,  1857.  Skazanic  o  sb.  Borisye  u 
Glyebye,  S.  Petersburg,  i860.  A  church  of  SS.  Boris  and  Glyeb 
stands  on  extreme  north-west  limits  of  Russia,  and  marks  the 
frontier  of  Russia  over  against  Norway,  near  Varanger  Fiord. — 
Engelhardt,  Russian  Province  of  North  (Eng.  trans.,  1899),  1 12-1 13. 
My  best  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  C.  Raymond  Beazley  for  kind  help 
in  regard  to  the  Russian  saints. 

-  From  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great  he  has  become  a  national 
hero.  His  title  Nevski  comes  from  his  famous  victory  on  the  Neva 
over  the  Swedes.     See  Rambaud,  Hist,  dc  la  Ritssic,  pp.  133-138- 


National  Saints  43 

White  Sea,  Triphon  the  Apostle  of  the  extreme  North- 
West,  and  Theodorite  his  companion,  who  abide  in 
the  reverential  memory  of  the  Orthodox  Lapps,  all 
show  the  ideal  which  the  life  of  Christ  presents  to  the 
Russian  heart.  The  absolute  surrender  of  all  worldly 
prospects  makes  the  union  of  political  and  religious 
enthusiasm  possible.  To  the  Russian  missionaries 
there  is  no  separation  between  their  Empire  and  their 
Church.  In  no  country  in  the  world  do  the  saints 
represent  more  clearly  the  highest  aspirations  of  the 
national  life.  All  the  established  institutions  seem  to 
hold  together  through  this  combination  of  hagiology 
and  historic  patriotism,^  The  icons  of  the  national 
saints  are  everywhere  seen,  ever}-\vhere  venerated  :  of 
their  lives  every  Russian  seems  to  know  something  and 
to  cherish  the  lesson.  So  their  memory  lifts  men  to 
God  in  Christ. 

If  we  turn  westwards  we  find,  with  emphasis  now 
greater  now  less,  the  same  significance  of  national 
saints.  It  is  true  that  "  in  Germany,  notwithstanding 
some  general  reverence  for  S.  Boniface,  each  kingdom 
or  principality,  even  every  city,  town,  or  village,  had 
its  own  saint.""'  The  great  sees  have  all  their  own 
great  saints,   Mainz,  Trier,  Koln,  Augsburg  v^  and  the 

^  The  revolutionaries  on  the  other  hand  make  boast  of  throwing 
over  all  national  traditions.  "  Neither  God  nor  Tsar,"  says  one  of 
their  poems. 

^  Milman,  Latin  Chtistianity,  ix.  81.  Some  200  saints  arc  in- 
cluded in  F.  Heitemeyer's  Die  Heiligen  Dciitschlands,  Paderborn, 
1888,  a  series  of  popular  uncritical  biographies  arranged  according 
to  the  Kalendar. 

3  Cf.  for  instance  Lcbcn  unci  Thatcn  der  Heiligen  deren  Anden- 
ken  besonders  ini  lUsthiini  Trier  gefeiert  wird  .  .  .  Von  einein 
Priester  der  Diozese  Trier ^  Trier,  1837. 


44  The  English  Saints 

North  reverences  S.  Adalbert  the  Apostle  of  Prussia. 
But  the  types  were  not  divergent  :  they  embodied,  in  a 
marked  degree,  the  same  characteristics,  and  they  may 
very  fitly  be  represented  by  the  examples  of  S.  Wynfrith 
and  S.  Elizabeth  of  Hungary. 

Wynfrith, 1  a  Devonshire  man,  an  Exeter  monk,  a 
famous  preacher,  was  filled  with  the  missionary  en- 
thusiasm which  was  so  early  developed  in  the  English 
after  their  conversion.     The  name  of  Boniface,''^  most 

1  See  Jaffe,  Monutnenta  Mogiintina;  Diimmler,  is//.  Bonif.  in 
Mon.  Hist.  Germ..,  EptsL,  torn.  iii.  :  Richter,  Annalejt  des  Friiti- 
kischen  Reichs,  i.,  pp.  i88  sqq.:  Vita  by  Willibald  in  Acta  SS. 
Boli.,  June  i,  pp.  453  sqq.  (abridged  in  Nova  Legeitda  Atigliic,  \. 
122  sqq.)  :  see  also  list  of  authorities  in  Sir  E.  Maunde  Thompson's 
article  in  the  Dictionary  of  Natio7ial  Biograpliy,  v.  346.  See  also 
Prof.  Dr.  Oelsner,  Zur  Einfiihrung  i7i  die  Lcktiire  der  Bo/ii- 
fazische?i  Brief e,  Berichte  des  freien  dciiisclieji  Hochstiftes  zu  Frank- 
furt aj3f.,  New  Series,  xii.  130-135.  H.  G.  Schmidt,  />ie  Ernen- 
nung  des  Bonifatius  zuin  Metropolitan  v.  Koht^  a  Kiel  dissertation, 
1899.     And  also,  Analecta  Bollandiana.,  i.  49. 

-  (i)  Prof.  Dr.  Oelsner,  Der  Name  des  heiligen  Bonifatius,  in 
the  Berichte  des  freien  deutschen  Hochstiftes  zu  Frankfurt  a/M., 
New  Series,  xiii.  97-105  (1897). 

The  Facts  : — Even  in  his  first  years  on  the  Continent  B.  still 
called  himself  Wynfrith  (Epp.  9  and  10,  Jaffe  and  Diimmler).  In 
later  letters  he  employs  the  old  name  when  writing  to  old  friends 
in  England,  etc.  Ep.  31  (Diimmler  34),  86,  39.  In  purely  conti- 
nental correspondence  he  is  merely  B. 

The  Dispute  :—W\\\\ba.\d  (Jaffe,  A/on.  Moguntina,  p.  451)  says 
the  Pope  gave  him  the  name  B.  at  his  consecration  as  bishop, 
30  Nov.,  722. 

But  the  Pope  wrote  to  him  as  ^.  on  15  May,  719,  Ep.  12.  Cf. 
also  Ep.  14  and  16  (15).  The  usual  conclusion  is  that  Willibald's 
informants  have  confused  B.'s  two  visits  to  Rome,  by  a  fault  of 
memory.     Oelsner  agrees. 

(2)  Dr.  A.  J.  Niirnberger,  Die  Nanien  Vynfreth-Bonifatius,  eiii 
historisch-kritisches  Referat,  Breslau,  1896,  thinks  Willibald  is 
correct,  and  assumes   that  Wynfrith  already  had  the  cognomen 


National  Saints  45 

probably  his  cloister-name,  was  that  with  which  he 
went  forth  under  the  direction  of  Gregory  II.  to  convert 
the  heathen  Germans.  From  the  partly  Christian 
Bavarians  and  Thuringians  he  passed  to  Frisia,  which 
was  to  be  the  scene  of  his  most  severe  labours.  In 
Hessia  and  Thuringia  too  he  laboured,  and  elsewhere 
he  preached  the  Gospel  to  the  savage  hordes  who  lived 
amid  the  trackless  forests  and  on  the  "  cold  and  dreary 
deserts  "  —  so  his  early  biographer  calls  them  —  of 
Germany.  The  life  of  Boniface,  written  by  a  simple- 
minded  monk  who  was  the  companion  of  his  missionary 
journej'S  and  the  sharer  of  his  dangers,  tells  how  he 
penetrated  into  lands  where  no  Christian  foot  had  trod 
and  stood  face  to  face  with  gloomy  superstitions  and 
horrid  rites,  with  sacred  groves,  and  human  sacrifices, 

Bonifatius  in  England,  to  which  the  Pope  gave  an  official  character 
at  his  consecration  (Niirnberger,  p.  91).  He  finds  four  examples 
in  Bede  : — Aeddi  Stephanus,  Biscop  Benedictus,  Huetberht  Euse- 
bius,  and  Berctgils  Bonifatius.  But  in  the  third  of  these  the 
familiar  name  was  dropped^  not  retained,  when  the  man  became 
abbat.  But  Willibald's  statement  is  too  clear— it  must  mean  that 
the  Pope  gave  him  a  name  which  he  had  not  previously  had.  Cf. 
the  case  of  Willibrord  who  in  695  v\as  consecrated  at  Rome  with 
the  name  Clemens.  Perhaps  from  this  case  Willibald  and  his 
informants  came  to  think  it  was  at  Boniface's  consecration  also 
that  he  received  his  new  name. 

Orthography  of  name. — Niirnberger  shows  that  Bonifa/ius,  not 
Bonifanus,  is  more  correct.  The  form  with  c  encouraged  the 
etymology  from  bonum  a.w(\  faccre ;  that  with  /  might  be  ivom/ati 
(the  good  speaker,  Eixp-qp-Los  or  evdyyeXos)  or  from  fatiiin  (ei/ri'x^s). 
These  etymologies  occur  already  about  750  (solita  beneficentia, 
Ep.  103  Jaffe',  105  Diimmler)  and  without  doubt  in  biographies 
before  800.  -But  in  giving  the  name  the  Pope  was  only  thinking  of 
a  name  which  had  already  been  borne  by  17  saints  and  5  Popes, 
not  of  Wynfrith's  own  personal  characteristics  (Oelsncr  and  Nihn- 
berger). 


46  The  English  Saints 

and  altars  reeking  with  blood.  With  his  own  hands 
he  felled  the  sacred  oak  of  Gcismar.  Great  as  a 
missionary  he  was  great  also  as  an  organizer,  Germany 
dates  her  first  ecclesiastical  constitution  from  him. 
For  twenty  years  the  fellow  labourer  of  the  English- 
man S.  Willibrord,  he  never  lost  touch  with  his  native 
land.  Many  English,  men  and  women,  joined  him  as 
missionaries.  He  corresponded  with  Cuthbert  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  as  to  the  condition  of  the 
English  Church.^  For  nearly  forty  years  he  laboured, 
"in  journeyings  often,  in  perils  of  robbers,  in  perils 
of  the  heathen,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  perils 
among  false  brethren,  in  weariness  and  painfulness, 
in  watchings  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fastings 
often,  in  cold  and  nakedness  ":  and  as  the  years  went 
on  he  had  the  care  of  all  the  German  churches.  Next 
to  the  interest  of  the  missionar}'  was  the  interest  of  the 
theologian  in  his  heart.  "  Though  I  am  the  last  and 
least  of  the  messengers  of  the  Church,"  he  wrote  when 
in  England,  "  I  pray  I  may  not  yet  die  wholl}-  without 
fruit  for  the  Gospel."  The  strong  dogmatic  interest 
that  has  always  been  conspicuous  in  the  land  of  Luther 
was  inaugurated  by  the  Apostle  of  Germany.  When 
he  received  consecration  as  bishop  he  made,  as  was 
the  custom,  his  formal  profession  of  belief  in  one  great 

^  Jaffe,  Mon.  Mogunt.^  p.  ?.oo  ;  see  Dr.  R.  Schwemer,  Bonifatiits 
tind  die  frommen  anoelsdchsischen  Frauen,  in  Bcrichie  des  freieji 
dciitschcn  Hochstiftcs  zii  Frankfii7-t  a\M.^  New  Series,  xii.,  321-326 
(1896),  which  traces  the  relations  between  England  and  the  German 
mission-field.  The  best  known  members  of  this  mission  were 
SS.  Willibald,  Wunibald,  Lioba,  Tecla,  Walburga.  S.  Lullus  of 
Mainz  and  S.  Burchardus  of  Wurzburg  were  both  from  Malmes- 
bury  ;  S.  Wigbert  from  Glastonbury.  Most  of  the  nuns  were  from 
Wimborne,  the  foundation  of  Ina's  sister  S.  Cuthburga. 


National  Saints  47 

doctrine  of  the  faith.  Some  would  choose  the  Divinity 
of  Christ,  some  the  personahty  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as 
the  subject  for  a  theological  dissertation.  Boniface 
chose  the  doctrine  of  the  Undivided  Trinity.^  His 
later  years  were  filled  with  contendings  for  the  faith  as 
he  understood  it.  Great  as  a  theologian  and  as  an 
organizer,  the  interest  he  held  most  dear  was  still  that 
which  has  given  to  England  the  heroic  fame  of  many  a 
martyred  missionary.  When  he  was  seventy-five,  after 
nearly  forty  years  of  labour  among  the  Germans,  he 
was  murdered  with  fifty-two  of  his  companions  and 
converts  on  the  Whit  Sunday  (755)  when  he  had 
planned  to  give  confirmation  to  those  he  had  baptized. 
He  forbade  his  companions  to  resist,  and  cheerfully 
incited  them  to  win  the  martyr's  crown.-  "  For  a  long 
time  I  have  earnestly  desired  this  day,"  he  said  in  his 
own  native  English  tongue.  "Be  strong  in  the  Lord 
and  bear  with  thankful  endurance  whatever  His  grace 
sends.  Hope  in  Him  and  He  will  save  your  souls." 
So  to  the  last  he  showed  the  simple  trustful  devotion 
of  his  character.  Above  his  talent  for  organization 
was  his  talent  for  affectionate  friendship,'^  above  his 
intellect  the  life  purer,  fuller,  truer  than  that  of  the 
men  around  him :  and  beneath  that  the  inherited 
tenacity  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.^ 

His  blood  was  indeed  the  seed  of  the  German 
Church  :  and  his  memory,  the  force  of  absolute  devo- 
tion,  the  keenness  of  dogmatic  interest,   the  courage 

1  Willibald,    Vifa  S.  Bonif.,  in    Jaffe,  p.   450.    Jiiramcntitiii   in 
Epp.  S.  Bojii/.,  Ibid.,  p.  76. 
■■^  Willibald,  Jaffe,  pp.  464,  465. 
3  C/.Ep.-.i. 
■*  Cf.  Hauck,  Kirchengeschichtc,  \.  575-5/8- 


48  The  English  Saints 

even  to  death,  were  the  cherished  ideals  for  centuries 
of  the  German  people.^  In  England  too  his  memory 
was  reverenced  from  the  first.  The  name  of  S.  Boni- 
face was  inserted  among  the  saints  b}-  a  synod  in  756, 
a  year  after  his  death. '^  Probably  the  two  Herwalds, 
mart}Ted  by  the  wild  Germans  in  spite  of  their 
"  satraps "  early  in  the  8th  century,  were  placed  in 
English  kalendars  as  well  as  those  of  Gaul.' 

Great  though  the  honour  of  S.  Boniface  be,  the 
distinction  of  the  "  dear  S.  Elizabeth,"*  the  type  of 
piety,  domestic  and  practical,  is  unique. 

Elizabeth    of  Thuringia,^   like    S.    Boniface,    was   a 

1  Albert  Hauck,  KijxJieiigescliicJitc  DcutscJiIauds  (1898),  I., 
pp.  430,  431,  denies  to  him  the  title  of  Apostle  of  (".ermany. 
"  Willibrord  on  the  other  hand,"  he  says,  "  deserves  the  title  of 
apostle  of  Friesland." 

-  Epistola  Cuthberti  ad  Lulliim,  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils, 
iii.  391,  "In  generali  synodo  nostra  ejus  diem  natalicii  illiusque 
cohortis  cum  eo  martyrizantis  insinuantes  statuimus  annua  fre- 
quentatione  sollemniter  celebrare."  Bishop  Stubbs  in  his  private 
letter  "Joint  Action  of  Convocations,"  1887,  does  not  count  this  as 
a  national  synod. 

■■^  So  MS.  Vitell.  A.,  xviii.,  quoted  by  Warren,  Leofric  Missal, 
p.  xxiv.  Bishop  Stubbs,  in  Diet.  Chrn.  Biography,  does  not  how- 
ever mention  this. 

•*  "  Di  liebe  sente  Elyzabeth,"  Friedrich  Kiidiz,  translation  (1314- 
1323)  of  a  supposed  Latin  life  of  Elizabeth's  husband,  quoted 
in  Boerner  (see  below,  next  note),  pp.  494,  496. 

^  F.  X.  Wegele's  article,  "  Die  heilige  Elisabeth  von  Thiiringen," 
in  von  Sybel's  Historischc  ZcitscJirift,\'.  351-397  (Munchen,  1861), 
was  the  first  biography  founded  on  a  critical  estimate  of  the  original 
authorities.  Karl  Wenck's  "  Die  heilige  Elisabeth  "  in  the  same 
journal  (New  Series,  xxxiii.  209-244,  1892)  limited  the  number  of 
authentic  sources  still  further,  and  subjected  even  their  contents  to 
rigid  criticism.  Wenck  had  previously  written  a  book  on  Die 
E7itstehung  der  Reinhardsbrimner  Geschichisbiicher  {HaWe,  1878) 
and  an  article,  "Zur  Entstehungsgeschichte  der  Reinhardsbrunner 


National  Saints 


49 


foreigner ;  she  was  by  birth  a  Hungarian  jM-incess, 
but  as  a  saint  she  is  wholly  German.^  Her  deeds 
of  sacrifice  were  done  for  Germans  on  German  soil : 

Historien,"  in  the  Neucs  Archiv  der  Gesellschaft  fitr  dltcre  dcutsche 
Geschichtskiinde,  x.  97-138  (Hannover,  1884),  and  he  was  now  able 
to  make  use  of  the  researches  of  G.  Boerner  {Zur  Kritik  der 
Quellen  fiir  die  Gcschichte  der  heiligcn  Elisabeth,  etc.  Neues 
Archiv,  etc.,  xiii.  433-515,  1887),  and  H.  Mielke  (Zur  Biographic 
der  heiligen  Elisabeth,  doctoral  dissertation,  Rostock,  1888;  also  a 
work,  Die  heilige  Elisabeth,  in  the  Sainmlitng  geineijiverstdndlich 
wissenschaftlicher  Vortrcige,  edited  by  Virchow  and  Wattenbach, 
Hamburg,  1891.  A  protest  against  some  of  the  conclusions  of 
their  advanced  criticism  was  made  by  Emil  Michael,  S.  J.,  Zur 
Geschichte  der  heiligen  Elisabeth,  in  the  Zeitschri/t  fiir  katholische 
Theologie,  xxii.  565-583,  Innsbruck,  1898. 

The  original  authorities  accepted  by  the  critical  historian  as 
first  rate  are  two  in  number,  (i)  The  letter  of  Conrad  of  Marburg 
{Episiola  Conradi)  to  Pope  Gregory  IX.,  dated  16  Nov.,  1232, 
respecting  Elizabeth's  claims  to  canonization,  printed  in  Arthur 
Wyss,  Hessisches  Urkiindcnbuch,  Erste  Abtheilung,  I.  31-35, 
Leipzig,  1879,  one  of  the  Ptiblicationcn  aus  den  k.  preiissisclien 
Staatsarchiven.  Other  documents  of  the  years  1232-5  relating 
to  the  same  matter  are  in  Wyss,  numbers  28,  35,  43,  54.  (2)  The 
Libellus  de  dictis  IV.  ancillarum  S.  Elizabeths,  a  work  compiled 
in  1236  from  the  sworn  statements  of  Elizabeth's  maidens  at  the 
inquiry  in  1234  with  reference  to  her  proposed  canonization  ; 
printed  in  J.  B.  IVIencke's  (Menckenius)  Scriptores  Reriivi  Ger- 
inanicaruin,  ii.  2007-2034,  Lipsias,  1728.  From  these  two  sources 
all  the  other  biographies  are  drawn,  including  that  by  Ciesarius  of 
Heisterbach  (written  not  later  than  1237,  never  printed  in  full,  but 
excerpted  in  Boerner,  503-6)  and  that  by  Dietrich  of  Apolda, 
written  in  1289,  which  Kingsley  used  for  The  Saint's  Tragedy,  and 
which  is  printed  in  Basnage's  edition  of  Canisius,  Lcctiones 
AntiqticE,  iv.  1 16-152,  Amstekedami,  1725. 

The  Annales  Reinhardsbrunnenses  were  thought  by  Wegele 
(who  edited  them,  Thuringische  Geschichtsquellen,  i.,  Jena,  1854) 

1  Indeed  she  lived  in  Thuringia  from  the  age  of  four.  Dietrich 
of  Apolda,  i.  i  (from  Bertold's  Annals,  Boerner,  p.  506). 

4 


50  The  English  Saints 

and  the  legends  of  later  times,  rich  in  poetry,  are  of 
German  growth.  They  belong  characteristically  to 
"  the  ages  of  Faith. "^ 

An  extreme  scepticism  has  played  with  the  historical 
records  of  her  life  :  but  facts  emerge  that  are  indis- 
putable. 

She  was  married  at  fourteen  to  Lewis  IV.  of 
Thuringia.     She  was  a  devoted  wife,-  who  bore  with 


to  contain  information  from  Bertold,  the  chaplain  of  the  Land- 
grave Lewis,  which  Dietrich  of  Apolda  copied.  But  it  has 
been  shown  by  Wenck  and  Boerner  that  the  Annals  have  under- 
gone \arious  revisions,  and  that  only  the  political  part  of  the 
Annals  from  1200- 1228  can  have  been  copied  by  Dietrich,  since 
the  rest,  legendary,  is  not  Bertold 's  work  at  all,  but  a  14th  century 
compilation  from  Dietrich  himself,  who  got  the  stories  either  from 
oral  tradition  ("  interrogavi  personas  antiquissimas  et  veraces,"  he 
says  in  his  preface)  or  from  an  unknown  source  like  the  two 
sermons  which  he  had  read  (also  mentioned  in  the  preface).  All 
that  I  know  of  S.  Elizabeth,  as  well  as  much  relating  to  S.  Boni- 
face, I  owe  to  the  most  valuable  help  of  Mr.  L.  R.  M.  Strachan, 
Lektor  in  the  University  of  Heidelberg.  The  details  in  the  notes 
are  practically  all  his. 

1  So  Montalembert  called  his  life  of  her  "  une  legendedes  siccles 
de  foi."     Hist,  de  S.  Elisabeth^  1836,  p.  vii. 

-  Like  all  medieval  saints  she  thought  much  of  the  glory  of 
virginity.  "Ipsam  ciuerelosam  reperiens,  quod  aliquando  fuerit 
conjugio  copulata  et  quod  in  virginali  flore  non  poterat  presentem 
vitam  terminare,"  Ep.  Conradi,  p.  32,  11.  23-25.  Repeated  by 
Dietrich  in  the  form,  "  querulabatur  tamen  dolens,  quod  virginalis 
decorem  floris  non  meruit  conservare,"  ii.  i.  Citsarius  of  Heister- 
bach,  in  one  of  the  few  passages  where  he  is  not  dependent  on  the 
Lil'clli/s,  says  :  "  Cumque  beata  ct  venerabilis  virgo  Elisabeth  ad 
nubiles  annos  pervenisset,  contra  cordis  sui  desiderium  nobilissimo 
principi  Ludo\ico  Landgrax  io  desjxjnsata  est  ct  matrimonio 
juncta,"  Wegelc,  p.  370.  Boerner  (]).  470)  says  Ca'sarius  must 
ha\e  invented  the  statement.  But  of  her  affection  for  her  husband 
there    can    be    no    doubt    at  all.     She   accompanied    him    on   his 


National  Saints  51 

sorrow  her  husband's  absence  on  Crusade  and  suffered 
bitterly  at  his  death.  Of  her  children  she  said  that  she 
loved  them  as  she  loved  her  neighbour,  evidently  re- 
ferring to  the  Gospel  rule  to  love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself.^ 


journe)'S,  "maritum  secutura  ad  magnam  dia?tam,"  Libellus 
2015  B.  He  cheerfully  tolerated  her  nocturnal  prayers,  even 
when  one  of  the  maidens,  going  to  wake  Elizabeth,  pulled  his  toe 
by  mistake  for  hers,  ibid.^  201 5  D.  When  he  was  away  she  dressed 
like  a  widow,  but  when  he  returned  she  put  on  festive  apparel  to 
welcome  him,  Ibid.^  2016  A.  Her  love,  mingled  with  submission 
to  God's  will,  is  seen  in  her  prayer  at  Lewis'  funeral :  "  Domine, 
gratias  ago  tibi,  quia  in  ossibus  mei  mariti  multum  desideratis 
misericorditer  es  me  consolatus.  Tu  scis,  quantumlibet  cum 
dilexerim  :  tamen  ipsum  dilectissimum  tibi  a  se  ipso  et  a  me  in 
subsidium  terree  [sanctae]  oblatum  non  invideo.  Si  possem  eum 
habere,  pro  toto  mundo  eum  acciperem,  semper  secum  mendi- 
catura.  Sed  contra  voluntatem  tuam,  te  teste,  nollem  eum  uno 
crine  redimere.  Nunc  ipsum  et  me  tute  gratiaj  commendo.  Ue 
nobis  tiat  tua  voluntas,"  Libellus  2021  B.  Cf.  also  the  stories  (from 
tradition  according  to  Boerner)  in  Dietrich,  iv.  i,  3,  6 ;  and  another 
story  in  the  Reinhardsbrunn  compilation  of  1293,  Mencke,  ii.  1992-3. 
Of  the  critics  Wenck  is  the  most  sceptical,  going  so  far  as  to  say 
(p.  211)  that  the  later  tradition  which  makes  Elizabeth  a  loving 
wife  and  mother  is  part  of  the  reaction  against  asceticism.  But 
even  he  admits  (p.  231)  that  in  her  Eisenach  period  she  combined 
her  many  charities  with  attention  to  family  duties. 

1  She  was  obliged,  however,  to  part  with  them,  her  confessor 
desiring  to  wean  her  from  every  earthly  affection.  Conrad,  Ep. 
p.  33.  Libellus  2023  A.  Of  herself  "  Item  beata  Elyzabetli 
puerum  ejus  anni  et  dimidii  habenssetatem,jussit  omnino  removcri 
a  se,  ne  nimis  diligeret  eum,  et  ne  per  eum  impediretur  in  servitio 
Dei,"  Libellus  2030  D.  "Deo  teste  pueros  euro  ut  alium 
proximum ;  Deo  commisi  eos,  faciat  de  eis  quod  sibi  placet," 
Ibid.^  2022  D.  Dietrich,  vii.  6,  in  reproducing  the  first  of  these 
passages,  says  :  "  Vide  nunc  evidenter,  quomodo  triumphat  gratia 
de  natura,  et  super  earn  pra^valet  excellenter."  As  to  Conrad's 
mflucnce  :  "Dixit  etiam  [Irmengardis],  quod  consvevit  plurimum 

4—2 


52  The  English  Saints 

But  her  sympathy  went  out  everywhere  to  the  poor 
and  the  afflicted.  She  was  a  true  disciple  of  Christ 
after  the  fashion  of  S.  Francis,  whose  rule  she  eventu- 
ally adopted.  To  him  she  dedicated  the  hospital  she 
built :  and  it  was  quite  in  his  manner  that  she  said  to 
the  Franciscans  who  were  showing  her  the  decoration  of 
their  church  at  Marburg  :  "  It  had  been  better  to  spend 
the  money  on  your  food  and  clothing  than  on  these 
walls ;  for  }'ou  ought  to  carry  the  subject  of  these 
pictures  in  your  hearts."^  And  again  on  a  similar 
occasion  she  said,  "  I  have  no  need  of  such  a  picture, 
because  I  carry  the  subject  in  my  heart."-  So  long  as 
her  husband  lived  she  performed  the  duties  of  her 
station  \\ith  exemplary  regularity.  She  managed  to 
combine  with  the  austerity  of  cloistered  saints  the 
joyful  activity  of  a  busy  worker  in  the  world.  The 
combination  was  by  no  means  rare  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  indeed  is  reproduced  with  remarkable  similarity  a 
few  years  later  by  S.  Louis.  Her  charitable  work 
began  with  single  acts,  small  and  great,  such  as  the 
gift  of  her  robe  to  a  poor  woman,^  and  the  building  of  a 
hospital  at  Eisenach  -^  but  when  her  husband  was  with 
the  Emperor  Frederic  I.  in  Italy  she  dealt  with  the 


tiinere  Mag.  Conradum  beata  Elyzabeth,  sed  in  loco  Dei,  dicens  : 
Si  hominem  mortalem  tantum  timeo,  quantum  Dominus  omni- 
potens  est  timendus,  qui  est  Uominus  et  Judex  omnium  ?" 
LibcUiis  2029  A. 

1  "  Ecce  melius  posuissetis  banc  expensam  in  vestibus  vestris 
et  victualibus  quam  in  parietibus,  quoniam  banc  sculpturam 
ymaginum  in  corde  vestro  gerere  deberetis,"  Libcllus  2031  A. 

-  "  Non  habeo  opus  tali  ymagine,  quia  eam  in  corde  meo  porlo," 
Ibid.^  2031  A. 

^  Libcllus  2016  C. 

'  Ibid.^  2017  C  :  see  next  note. 


National  Saints  53 

famine  of  1226  by  an  organized  system  of  relief.^ 
Lewis  when  he  returned  fully  approved  her  action.- 
A  legend  tells  how  he  once  lifted  up  her  cloak  to  see 
what  she  was  carrying  on  one  of  her  errands  of  charity, 
and  the  loaves  she  was  carrying  were  turned  b}'  a 
miracle  into  roses''^ ;  and  again  when  his  mother  in 
horror  told  him  his  wife  had  laid  a  leper  in  his  bed 
God  opened  his  eyes  and  he  saw  there  the  Crucifix.* 

1  "  Eodem  tempore  marito  suo  in  Apuleam  ad  imperatorem 
proficiscente  per  universam  Alemanniam  caristia  gravis  est 
suborta  .  .  .  Jamjam  soror  E.  .  .  .  precipiens  .  .  .  hospitale 
fieri,  in  quo  plurimos  infirmos  et  debiles  recollegit,  omnibus  etiam 
elemosinam  ibi  requirentibus  caritatis  beneficium  large  distribuit, 
et  non  solum  ibi,  sed  in  omnibus  finibus  et  terminos  sui  viri  juris- 
ditionis,  omnes  suos  proventus  taliter  evacuans  de  quatuor  viri  sui 
principatibus,"  Conradi  Epistola,  p.  32,  11.  25-34 ;  cf.  Boerner, 
p.  481.  "  Item  tempore  generalis  famis  et  karistia;,  Lanthgravio 
profecto  ad  curiam  Cremonensem,  omnem  annonam  de  suis 
grangiis  specialibus  collectam,  in  pauperum  elemosinis  expendit  .  .  . 
Cum  itaque  multitudinem  pavisset,  sic  usque  ad  novas  fruges 
omnibus,  qui  poterant  laborare,  dedit  camisias  et  calceos,' 
Libellus  2017-2018.  Dietrich  of  Apolda,  iii.  6,  7,  combines  these 
two  accounts. 

2  Dietrich,  iii.  8.     Conrad,  Ep.  p.  32.     Libellus  2019  A. 

^  In  §  21  of  the  15th  century  rhymed  German  Life  of  Elizabeth 
(by  Johann  Rothe,  who  died  1434  according  to  Boerner,  p.  433), 
Mencke,  Scriptores  Rerum  Germanicarum^  ii.  2067.  The  same 
story  is  told  of  several  other  holy  women,  notably  of  Elizabeth's 
namesake,  S.  Elizabeth  Queen  of  Portugal  (died  1336),  from  whose 
life  the  legend  may  have  found  its  way  into  that  of  our  saint.  See 
Zurbonsen,  Die  Rosen  der  hi.  hlisabeth,  in  Der  Katholik,  79,  2 
(=  3rd  Series,  20),  pp.  481-490,  Mainz,  1899. 

•*  First  told  in  a  revision  of  Dietrich's  Life  made  by  a  Rein- 
hardsbrunn  monk  in  1293  {cf.  Boerner,  p.  491)  :  "Quo  comperto, 
socrus  [Sophia,  the  mother  of  Lewis]  apprehensa  filii  manu,  duxit 
ipsum  ad  lectum  dicens  :  Recognosce  modo,  quod  hiis  Elysabeth 
solet  inficere  stratum  tuum.  Tunc  aperuit  Deus  interiores  principis 
oculos,  viditque  in  thoro  suo  positum   crucifixum.     Qua  contem- 


54  The  English  Saints 

Thus  she  was  accepting  the  Franciscan  ideal  of  practical 
charity  :  and  as  the  influence  of  her  stern  confessor 
Conrad  of  Marburg  grew  stronger,  and  as  her  own 
sorrows  lay  heavy  on  her,  she  turned  more  and  more 
to  a  life  of  rigid  asceticism.  Her  husband  died  in 
1227,  after  six  years  of  married  life.  His  brother  cast 
her  out,  and  she  suffered  great  privations.  In  1229 
she  renounced  the  world  and  placed  herself  entirely 
under  the  orders  of  Conrad,  and  retired  to  Marburg^ 
and  devoted  herself  entirely  to  the  hospital  which  she 
founded  and  to  other  charitable  works.  Conrad 
endeavoured  to  restrain  her  severities :  he  forbade  her 
to  take  the  veil,  or  to  become  a  mendicant,  or  to  run 
risk  of  infection.^     But  her  domestic  life  was  over,  and 

placione  emendatus  plus  princeps  rogavit  sacram  conjuyem  ut 
tales  in  strato  suo  frequencius  collocaret.  Intellexit  enim  quod  in 
membris  suis  infirmis  fovetur  et  suscipitur  Dominus  Jhesus 
Christus,"  Mencke,  ii.  1990  C.  So  in  j  20  of  the  metrical  German 
life,  "Got  von  hymmell  der  vns  geschueff  i  Der  thet  Ime  seine 
innern  ougen  auf  |  Das  er  ein  gekreutzigt  bylde  fandt,"  Ibid.,  2067. 

'  "  Me  licet  invitum  secuta  est  Alarpurc,"  Ep.  Cotiradi,  p.  ■}>'})•, 
1.  14.  "Ad  mandatum  Magistri  Conradi  Marpurch  se  transtulit," 
Libelliis  2021  C.  Wegele  (p.  393)  believes  the  Libellus,  vVenck 
(p.  237)  believes  Conrad.  The  only  way  to  reconcile  these  con- 
flicting statements  is  to  suppose  that  Conrad  yielded  unwillingly  to 
entreaty,  and  against  his  better  judgment  authorized  her  to  come 
to  Marburg  {cf.  Michael,  577).  Marburg  was  hers  by  right  of 
dower,  but  she  had  to  find  shelter  in  a  dilapidated  hovel  outside, 
till  a  rude  house  was  built  for  her  in  the  town.     Libellus  2021. 

-  "  Utrum  in  reclusorio  vel  in  claustro  vel  in  quo  alio  statu 
magis  posset  mereri  me  consultans  .  .  .  cum  multis  lacrimis  a  me 
poposcit,  ut  eam  permitterem  hostiatim  mendicare.  Quod  cum 
proterve  ei  negarem  .  .  .,''  Ep.  Conradi.,  p.  2)2)i  IJ-  i-4- 

"  Item  cum  esset  in  majori  gloria  sua,  multum  afifectabat  men- 
dicitatcm,  et  cum  ancillis  suis  frequenter  de  paupertate  tractabat,"' 
etc.,  Libelhis  2018  C.      Mielke  and  Wenck  quote  her  prayer  at 


National  Saints 


55 


for  the  two  years  that  remained  to  her  she  was  entirely 
a  Franciscan.  As  such  on  November  17,  1231,^  she 
died  and  as  such  she  was  buried. 

The  canonization  of  so  notable  a  saint  was  not  long 
deferred.-  The  miracles'^  that  were  told  everywhere  of 
her  were  acts  of  charity  and  mercy  such  as  might  flow 
naturally  from  her  gentle  and  loving  spirit,  and  the 
memory  that  was  fragrant  in   all   Germany,  that  was 


her  husband's  funeral  as  a  wish  to  be  able  to  go  about  begging 
with  Lewis :  "  Si  possem  eum  habere,  pro  toto  mundo  eum 
acciperem,  semper  secum  mendicatura,"  IJbellus  2021  B,  but 
Wegele  and  Michael  give  it  the  meaning,  "even  if  I  were  obliged 
to  spend  my  life  in  beggary  with  him."  C;^sarius  of  Heisterbach 
records  Elizabeth's  wish  for  a  country  life  in  a  very  pleasing 
passage  :  "  Vellem  nos  tantum  habere  terram  aratri  unius  et  oves 
ducentas,  ita  ut  vos  terram  eandem  manibus  vestris  excoleretis  et 
ego  oves  mulgerem.  Ad  quod  verbum  lantgravius  subridens  et 
simplicitati  eius  congratulans  iocose  respondit  :  Eya,  soror,  si 
haberemus  terram  aratri  unius  et  ducentas  oves,  non  esscnius 
pauperes,  sed  divites,"  Boerner,  p.  504. 

"Virginem  sibi  leprosam  me  nesciente  assumpsit  procurandam 
et  in  domo  suo  abscondit  .  .  .  Quo  percepto,  parcat  mihi  dominus  ! 
quia  verebar  eam  infici  inde,  gravissime  castigavi,"  Ep.  Conradiy 
p.  '^'}^^  11.  32-37.  "  Mag.  \ero  Conradus  bono  zelo  hoc  prohibebat 
licet  assent  opera  misericordia;  et  de  genere  bonorum,  contagioso 
morbo  leprosorum  timens  nobilem  ejus  teneritatem  infici  vcl 
corrumpi,  et  ideo  arcebat  eam  a  familiaritate  et  attractu  et  deoscula- 
tione  eorundem,"  Libclliis  2023  B. 

1  "  On  the  day  following  the  Sunday  before  the  octave  o 
S.  Martin,"  Postea  dominica,  que  fuit  pro.xima  ante  octa\am 
Martini,  Conradi,  Ep.,  p.  34,  11.  16,  17.  In  the  bull  of  canoniza- 
tion. Ibid.  p.  53,  11.  24,  25,  the  date  of  her  death  is  given  as 
November  19,  and  is  generally  so  stated,  although  it  is  really  the 
date  of  her  burial.     Michael,  p.  566  n. 

-  The  bull  was  issued  in  1235,  Wyss,  Hessh/ics  Urkundcnbuch, 
i.,  No.  54. 

^  Wyss,  i.,  No.  28.     Bocrncr,  pp.  434-442. 


56  The  English  Saints 

cherished  by  thousands  of  pilgrims/  and  that  was  but 
temporarily  checked  by  the  savage  excesses  of  the 
Keformation,^  was  a  memory  of  the  power  of  holy 
simplicit}'  and  love.'* 

Such  out  of  the  mass  of  local  German  saints  are  the 
two  great  names  which  emerge,  simple  and  heroic 
figures,  worthy  patterns  of  virtues  characteristic  of  a 
great  people. 

Where  national  feeling  was  at  an  earlier  date  unified 
and  fostered  b}-  State  and  Church,  it  was  easier  than 
in  Germany  to  unite  in  veneration  of  special  types  of 
sanctity  as  represented  in  striking  individual  character. 

France  has  no  doubt  as  to  her  typical  saints.*  S.  Louis 
is  no  less  a  saint  because  he  is,  as  Gibbon  long  ago  said, 

^  As  to  buildings,  relics,  etc.,  see  J.  B.  Rady,  Urkundlichc 
Geschichte  dcr  Rcliqiiien  der  heiligen  Elisabeth,  in  Der  Katholik, 
71,  2  (3rd  Series,  vol.  iv.),  pp.  146-164,  254-258,  .533-345,  398-413. 
507-527,  Mainz,  1891  ;  A.  ScharfenlDerg,  Die  VViederaaJfiudung 
der  Gebeine  der  hi.  Elis.,  Mainz,  1855. 

^  Rady,  406-7,  yet  Luther  admired  S.  Elizabeth  (Wenck,  p.  243). 

^  As  such  it  is  preserved  in  modern  German  poetry — e.g.,  Her- 
mann Iseke,  ]^er  lichen  heiligen  Elisabeth  Ton  Tlnh-ingen  gottselig 
Lcbrn  iind Sierhcii.    FJ)ie gereimfe  ErzaJihing.    Heiligenstadt,  1895. 

All)erta  \.  Freydorf,  Die  Rosen  der  heiligen  Elisabc/ii.  Eine 
Legende  in  drei  Aden.  Karlsruhe,  1886.  Robert  Weissenhofer, 
O.S.B.,  Die  heilige  Elisabeth  von  Thiiringen.  Schauspielin  Prosa. 
Linz  a.  D.,  1876  (3rd  ed.,  1893).  Cf.  Friedrich  Zurbonsen,  Die 
heilige  Elisabeth  von  Thiiringen  in  der  Jteiieren  deutschen  Poesie., 
Stuttgart,  Katholische  Vereinsbuchhandlung  (noted  in  the  Theolo- 
gischer  Jahresbericht  for  1900). 

■*  Even  M.  Ch.  Petit-Dutaillis  in  his  contriljution  to  M.  Ernest 
Lavisse's  great  Histoire  de  France.,  while  frankly  ignoring  the 
Christian  aspect.of  the  question,  places  together  Joan  of  Arc  and 
S.  Louis,  and  says  of  the  former  that  she  "  avec  Saint  Louis  est  le 
charme  et  I'honneur  de  notre  ancicnnc  histoire"  (tome  iv.,  fasc.  5., 
p.  70). 


National  Saints  57 

"a  king,  a  hero,  and  a  man."^  He  is  the  pattern  of 
Christian  chivalry,  and  the  French  genius  was  never 
more  gloriously  embodied  than  in  his  person.  A  clear 
stainless  face  looks  at  us  from  the  fresco  of  Giotto,  a 
face  over  ^^•hich  sorrows  have  passed  and  left  only  the 
mark  of  God's  grace  which  met  them.  So  the  soldier- 
saint  stands  forth  in  the  inimitable  portrait  of  Joinville. 
A  soldier,  every  inch  of  him,  quite  fearless,  simple, 
unhesitating,  the  soul  of  honour :  a  king  who  thought 
ceaselessly  of  the  good  of  his  people  and  how  to  govern 
them  well  and  loyally  :-  a  truth  lover,  like  the  English 
Alfred  :"  above  all  a  lover  of  God.  So  the  gallant  old 
knight  who  loved  and  revered  him  shows  him  to  us : 
*'  Before  I  recount  to  you  his  great  deeds  and  his 
chivalry,  I  will  tell  you  what  I  saw  and  heard  of  his 
holy  words  and  good  teachings,  that  the}'  ma}-  be  found 
in  their  order  to  edify  those  who  shall  hear  them.     This 

^  For  S.  Louis  the  authorities  are  chiefly  those  which  were 
collected  for  the  canonization.  The  process  of  inquiry  begun  in 
1273  was  resumed  1297,  and  Boniface  VIII.  declared  that  the  mass 
of  documents  submitted  in  the  latter  year  was  more  than  an 
ass  could  carry.  Little  is  discoverable  in  the  Vatican,  but  parts  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Mcinoires  de  la  Soc.  de  P his f aire  de  Pans,  etc.,  xxiii. 
(H.  Delaborde)  :  the  most  notable  of  the  authorities  are  Joinville, 
Hist,  dc  S.  Louis  (ed.  Wailly,  1890)  and  Guillaume  de  Saint-Pathus, 
Vie  dc  S.  Louis  (ed.  Delaborde,  1899) ;  of  modern  books  the  li\es 
by  Marius  Sepet,  1899,  and  F.  W.  Perry. 

-  Histoire,  ed.  Wailly,  p.  8.  He  had  for  his  whole  people  that 
love  which  made  him  reply  so  sharply  to  Charles  of  Anjou  in  the 
retreat  after  Mansourah  "Si  je  vous  suis  a  charge  debarrassez-vous 
de  moi,  mais  je  n'abandonnerai  jamais  mon  peuple."  Notices  et 
Documents,  published  by  the  Societd  de  I'histoire  de  Paris,  quoted 
by  M.  Langlois  in  Lavisse,  Hist,  de  France,  iii.  5,  32. 

^  Histoire,  p.  8.  "  Si  sainz  roys  ama  tant  veritei  que  neis  au 
Sarrazins  ne  vout-il  pas  mentir  de  ce  que  il  lour  a\oit  en  convenant " 
— where  the  implied  contrast  is  significant. 


58  The  English  Saints 

holy  man  loved  God  with  all  his  heart  and  imitated 
His  works ;  and  this  appeared  in  that  as  God  died  for 
the  love  which  He  had  to  His  people,  he  put  his  body 
at  venture  many  times  for  the  love  which  he  had  to  his 
people  ;  and  he  could  have  done  otherwise  if  he  had 
wished."^ 

That  indeed  is  the  note  of  this  type  of  medieval 
saintliness.  Louis,  with  all  his  political  and  ecclesi- 
astical difficulties,  was  to  a  great  extent  an  absolute 
lord.  "  He  could  have  done  otherwise  if  he  had 
wished."  All  the  little  lords  in  their  districts  upon 
which  the  royal  power  was  surely  encroaching,  could 
do  as  they  wished,  and  did.  Men  did  not  only  what 
was  right  in  their  own  eyes,  but,  as  the  candid  English 
monk  said  a  century  before,  what  was  wrong.'  And 
so  the  contrast  was  strange  when  a  great  King,  a 
warrior,  a  wise  man,  the  son  of  a  clever  masterful 
woman,  the  grandson  of  a  statesman  of  extraordinary 
astuteness,  showed  that  what  he  willed  was  to  serve  his 
people  and  to  live  according  to  the  law  of  God.  "  God 
has  given  me  all  I  have  :  what  I  spend  thus  is  the  best 
spent  of  all,"  he  said  when  he  was  reproached  for 
lavish  almsgiving:  it  was  so  with  his  spending  of  him- 
self. He  did  not  profess  to  be  a  theologian.  He 
thought  the  best  argument  that  a  layman  could  use 
with  an  infidel,  if  he  attacked  the  faith,  was  to  run  him 
through    the    body.-'^     But    that    saying   by    no    means 

1  Hisioire,  ed.  Wailly,  p.  7. 

-  William  of  Newburgh,  lil).  i.,  c.  22. 

^  "  Mais  li  horn  lays,  quant  il  ot  mesdirc  de  la  ley  cresticnnc,  ne 
ins  doit  pas  desfendre  la  foy  crestienne,  nc  mais  de  I'cspce  de 
quoy  il  doit  donner  parmi  !e  ventre  dedcns,  tant  comme  elle  y 
puet  entrer."     Ed.  Wailly,  p.  23. 


National  Saints  59 

represented  his  own  practice  :  he  delighted  to  draw 
Jews  and  Saracens  to  Christ  by  the  bands  of  love.^ 
He  had  indeed  all  the  delicacy,  the  delightful  inconse- 
quence, of  a  child,  and  with  it  a  courage  that  never 
faltered  in  the  most  difficult  times.  His  devotion  was 
touched  by  no  shadow  of  weakness.  His  life  of  prayer 
gave  him  continual  strength  and  energy.  He  was  a 
doughty  knight  and  in  enterprise  no  man  of  his  time 
surpassed  him.  Threats  of  torture  or  of  instant  death 
left  him  unmoved.  When  the  master  of  his  ship  ad- 
vised him  to  leave  it  because  it  had  struck  upon  a  rock, 
"  Sir,"  he  answered,  "1  have  heard  your  opinion  and 
the  opinion  of  my  people  :  but  now  I  will  give  you  back 
mine,  which  is  that  if  I  leave  this  ship  there  are  more 
than  five  hundred  people  on  board  who  will  stay  in  the 
isle  of  Cyprus  for  fear  of  their  lives  (for  there  is  not 
one  who  does  not  love  his  life  as  I  love  mine)  and  who 
will  never  peradventure  return  to  their  own  land. 
Wherefore  I  had  rather  put  my  body  and  my  life  and 
my  children  in  the  hand  of  God  than  that  I  should  do 
such  hurt  to  so  many  people  as  are  here."^  His  fear- 
lessness and  his  charity  remained  the  striking  marks  of 
his  character  to  the  end.  Perseverance  alone  crowns 
the  other  virtues,  says  one  who  knew  him  well,'^  and 
so  in  works  of  love  and  justice,  humility  and  pity, 
devotion  and  holiness,  he  ended  his  life  gloriously  in  the 
service  of  God  in  Whom  he  had  trusted. 

1  See  G.  de  Saint-Pathus,  pp.  ?o,  21.  The  same  writer  tells  how 
he  spared  the  Saracens  whenever  he  could,  and  hesitated  to  punish 
criminals  if  he  could  give  them  chance  of  a  better  life,  and  how  he  for- 
bade all  reproaches  against  those  who  had  apostatized  from  the  faith. 

-  Joinville,  Ed.  Wailly,  p.  264. 

■'  Guillaume  de  Saint-Pathus,  pp.  152,  153. 


6o  The  English  Saints 

By  the  side  of  the  warrior  and  statesman  King, 
France  places  a  young  girl  as  hero  and  saint. 

The  figure  of  Joan  the  Maid  is  unique  in  the  history 
of  the  world.^  An  untaught  child  of  eighteen,  brought 
up  in  a  far-away  village,  among  poor,  labouring  folk, 
came  to  inspire  the  disheartened  armies  of  France,  to 
save  cities,  win  battles,  bring  a  king  to  the  crowning, 
and  then,  as  suddenly  as  she  had  appeared,  to  pass  from 
the  world  the  victim  of  tragic  hatred  and  superstition. 

It  is  possible  to  explain  much  of  the  wonder  of  the 
work  she  did.  Already  at  the  beginning  of  1429  the 
English  were  finding  themselves  incapable  of  controlling 
the  great  countr}'  that  their  forces  had  overrun.  An 
insurrection  in  the  Gatinais  showed  the  weakness  of 
their  position  :  troops  that  they  sent  to  reinforce  the 
besiegers  of  Orleans  could  not  penetrate  to  the  city. 
The  Burgundians  were  never  more  than  half-hearted 
allies.  The  young  King  was  incapable  of  being  a 
leader,  and  there  was  no  one  among  his  advisers  who 
had  wisdom  to  see  the  whole  situation  at  a  glance,  to 
plan  or  to  provide.  A  great  man  on  cither  side  could 
have  made  France  his  own.  The  leader  came  at  the 
moment  of  the  deepest  need,  and  she  was  a  girl. 

1  See  the  Prods,  etc.,  collected  by  Quicherat  (1841-1849):  and 
La  Vraie  Jeatine  cVArc,  by  J.  B.  J.  Ayroles  :  and  the  interesting 
English  collection,  Jcaimc  d' Arc,  by  T.  Douglas  Murray.  M.  L. 
Petit  de  JuUeville's  Life  contains  the  "  Decree  concerning  the 
cause  for  the  beatification  and  canonization  of  the  venerable 
servant  of  God,  Jeanne  d'Arc,"  January  27,  1894.  The  process  is 
not  yet  complete :  but  the  correspondence  between  the  Pope  and 
the  P'rench  bishops,  published  in  La  Croix^  February  3,  1903,  shows 
that  the  beatification  is  imminent.  See  Ana/ecta  Bollandiana, 
torn,  xiv.,  p.  453.  M.  Chevalier,  nAhjuratiivi  dc  Jeanne  ti^Arc 
(1902)  is  a  valuable  recent  addition  to  the  literature  of  the  subject. 


National  Saints  6i 

The  military  genius  of  Joan  of  Arc  is  a  question  for 
soldiers  to  debate.  At  Orleans  certainly  she  saw  N\ith 
the  instinct  of  a  master  the  right  point  to  seize  upon. 
At  Patay  and  at  Troyes  the  work  was  in  no  small 
degree  her  own.  In  the  scheme  of  campaign  which 
she  instigated  she  was  undoubtedly  wise.  Yet  very 
probably  all  that  she  did  in  military  matters  was  but 
the  instinct  of  enthusiasm,  tired  by  a  higher  and 
religious  aim.  She  had  come  to  save  Orleans  and  to 
crown  the  King,  and  when  these  two  great  achieve- 
ments were  accomplished  her  work  was  done.-^ 

1  Air.  Douglas  Murray  inclines  to  the  view  that  she  recognized 
that  all  was  over  when  Charles  was  crowned  at  Rheims.  He 
thinks  that  the  letter  to  Henry  VI.  is  of  doubtful  authority — 

"  And  her  appeal  to  Charles  after  the  coronation  to  be  allowed 
to  return  to  her  father  and  mother,  supported  b)'  contemporary 
authority,  seems  to  show  that  she  looked  upon  her  work  as  done, 
and  the  great  outburst  of  weeping  in  the  cathedral  was  in  all  likeli- 
hood the  sob  of  satisfied  piety  and  patriotism,  whose  cares  were  at 
an  end  and  whose  task  was  fulfilled  even  to  fruition." 

But  he  is  in  error  in  thinking  that  "  the  latest  French  students 
agree"  with  this  view.  IVI.  Ayroles  denies  it.  M.  Charles  Petit- 
Dutaillis,  in  his  account  of  the  Pucelle,  published  in  1902  in  the 
fourth  volume  of  the  great  History  of  France  written  by  col- 
laborators under  the  direction  of  M.  Ernest  Lavisse,  proves  the 
opposite  opinion  to  be  correct.  He  has  no  doubt  of  the  authenticity 
of  the  letter  to  the  English  of  March  22nd,  1429,  which  declares 
that  she  was  come  les  bouter  hors  de  toiitc  France.  Before  her 
judges  at  Rheims  she  declared  that  she  had  told  Charles  that  she 
was  come  to  give  him  all  France.  What  she  said,  after  the  crown- 
ing, in  the  hearing  of  the  Bastard  of  Orleans,  was  only  unc  boiitade 
passagcre.  She  had,  indeed,  bought  herself  a  house  at  Orleans, 
intending  to  go  and  live  there  among  the  people  she  loved :  she 
had  no  thought  of  returning  to  Domrdmy.  Not  a  single  document, 
among  all  the  letters,  treaties,  documents  of  all  sorts  edited  by 
M.  Quicherat  in  his  great  collection,  or  the  Italian  letters  recently 
pubhshed  in  the  Chronicle  of  Morosini,  limits  her  mission  to  the 


62  The  English  Saints 

But,  however  far  her  mission  may  have  been  thought 
to  extend — and  men  wrote  to  ask  her  advice  about  the 
Papal  Schism  and  declared  that  she  prophesied  a 
Crusade  and  the  delivery  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre — it 
was  essentially  from  first  to  last  a  mission  of  religion. 
In  her  childhood,  when  others  were  dancing  round  the 
sacred  tree  on  which  she,  too,  hung  her  garland,  she 
was  innocent  of  the  old  pagan  superstitions  that  still 
lingered  round  the  oakwood  and  the  fountain.  Only 
she  saw  S.  Michael  and  S.  Margaret  and  S.  Catherine, 
the  leader  of  the  hosts  of  God,  the  young  shepherdess 
who  had  conquered  demons,  and  the  virgin  of  her  own 
age  who  had  confounded  the  wisdom  of  the  pagans. 
She  heard  the  holy  voices  which  willed  her  to  deliver 
France  ;  and  when  she  knelt  in  the  little  village  church 
before  the  Host  she  "  wept  abundantly  with  great 
tears."  "  Do  you  know,"  they  said  to  her  at  her  trial, 
"if  you  are  in  the  grace  of  God?"  "  If  I  am  not," 
she  answered  with  a  magnificent  simplicity,  "  May 
God  place  me  there  ;  if  I  am,  may  God  so  keep  me. 
I  should  be  the  saddest  in  all  the  world  if  I  knew 
that  I  were  not  in  the  grace  of  God.  But  if  I  were  in 
a  state  of  sin,  do  you  think  the  Voice  would  come  to 
me  ?  I  would  that  every  one  could  hear  the  Voice  as 
I  hear  it." 

She  had  vowed  her  virginity  to  God.  Her  courage 
was  consecrated  at  His  altars,  her  ignorance  taught  by 
His  revelations.  Throughout  her  whole  career  of  victory, 

delivery  of  Orleans  and  the  crowning  of  the  King.  To  the  last,  in 
prison  and  at  point  of  death,  Jeanne  was  not  sure  that  her  work 
was  done,  that  her  voices  would  not  again  call  her  forth  to  champion 
the  cause  of  France. 


National  Saints  63 

as  in  the  darkest  hours  of  her  imprisonment  and  perse- 
cution, she  was  ever  asking  to  confess,  to  hear  Mass,  to 
communicate.  She  sought  always,  consciously,  to  walk 
with  her  Father,  with  all  the  simplicity  of  a  peasant 
and  a  child.  If  her  brilliant  imagination,  that  saw 
war  and  statecraft  with  such  clear  insight,  personified 
her  thoughts  and  visualized  the  inspiration  that  came 
to  a  brave  heart,  who  shall  wonder  ?  She  hesitated  in 
the  hours  of  her  despair,  she  even  for  the  moment 
denied  ;  but  at  the  end,  as  she  was  dying  in  torment 
with  the  cross  held  "  upright  on  high  before  her  eyes 
until  the  moment  of  death  "  by  the  faithful  Dominican 
who  had  ministered  to  her,  she  cried  out  that  her 
Voices  had  not  deceived  her,  and  she  called  on  Jesus 
to  the  last. 

Joan  is  unique  in  Christendom.  She  was  a  saint 
because  she  loved  God ;  a  genius  because  God-inspired; 
a  national  saint  because  she  typified,  as  none  other  did, 
all  the  military  and  Catholic  and  racial  aspirations  of 
medieval  France.  Thus  she  goes  down  to  posterity 
with  S.  Louis.  They  are  the  two  genuine  heroes  and 
saints  of  France,  where  heroism  and  saintliness  always 
reached  their  highest  expression  in  union.  S.  Louis 
gave  France  concentration  of  power  ;  Jeanne  d'Arc 
"saw  the  possibility  of  a  great  French  nation,  self- 
centred,  self-sufficient,  and  she  so  stamped  this  message 
on  the  French  heart  that  its  characters  have  never 
faded." 

We  see  her  as  the  men  of  her  own  day  saw  her ; 
"mounting  her  horse,  armed  all  in  white,  save  the 
head,  a  little  axe  in  her  hand,"  so  says  a  letter  of  1428, 
"and  then,  turning  to  the  door  of  the   church,  which 


64  The  English  Saints 

was  quite  near,  she  said,  in  a  gentle  woman's  voice, 
'  You  priests  and  clergy,  make  processions  and  prayers 
to  God.'  Then  she  turned  again  on  her  way,  sa)ing, 
'  Draw  on,  draw  on,'  her  standard  flying,  borne  by  a 
gracious  page,  and  her  little  axe  in  her  hand." 

Strange  union,  the  little  axe  and  the  crucifix ;  yet  it 
is  in  that  union  that  there  lay  the  glory  of  medieval 
France,  the  glory  of  courage  and  sacrifice,  the  glory  of 
S.  Louis  and  the  Maid. 

Chivalry  and  religion,  the  ideal  that  rises  easily  from 
the  life  of  the  individual  to  the  life  of  the  nation,  from 
almsgiving  to  patriotism,  such  is  the  Christian  appeal 
as  it  conquers  and  inspires  the  French.  Among  other 
Latin  nations  the  course  was  different.  The  petty  local 
politics  and  incessant  quarrels  of  urban  democracies 
made  men  turn  from  the  society  to  the  individual.  The 
ideal  is  not  one  of  national  endeavour,  but  of  personal 
service.  It  is  that  which  is  stamped  with  the  very 
marks  of  Christ. 

E  poi  che,  per  la  sete  del  martiro, 
nella  presenza  del  Soldan  superba 
predico  Cristo,  e  gli  altri  che  '1  seyuiro, 

ei  per  trovare  a  conversione  acerba 

troppo  la  gente,  e  per  non  stare  indarno, 
reddissi  al  frutto  dell'  italica  erba. 

Nel  crudo  sasso  intra  Tevere  ed  Arno 
da  Cristo  prese  V  ultimo  sigillo, 
che  le  sue  membra  du'  anni  portarno.' 

In   Italy,  land  of  incomparable  riches  of  history  and 

tradition  and  the  art  of  all  ages,  there  stands  out  no 

national  saint.     The  endless  divisions,  not  yet  healed, 

have  prevented  any  common   acceptance  of  a  saintly 

^  Dante,  Paradiso.  xi.  100-108. 


National  Saints  65 

ideal  by  north  and  south.  There  are  many  names  that 
are  not  to  be  forgotten.  Among  women,  S.  Catherine 
of  Siena,  and  the  mystic  who  made  a  real  contribution 
to  theology,  S.  Catherine  of  Genoa,^  are  saints  of  the 
whole  Church  :  and  S.  Francis-  stands  beside  them,  or 
above.  Many  of  these  have  still  an  interest  that  is 
local  and  historical,  that  belongs  to  a  definite  era, 
to  a  particular  city.  The  interest  of  medieval  Siena 
for  example  culminates  in  its  saints,  in  the  wise  and 
loving  S.  Catherine  and  in  the  inspiring  and  zealous 
S.  Bernardino,  In  the  fourteenth  century  Siena  "  was 
at  once  the  most  turbulent  town  in  Italy,  the  home  of 
discord  and  restlessness,  and  the  city  of  saints,  winning 
for  itself  the  title  of  the  Ante-Chamber  of  Paradise." 
M.  Joly  in  his  "  Psychologie  des  Saints  "  has  dwelt  on 
the  abounding  and  beautiful  sympathy  apparent  in  the 
life  of  S.  Catherine,  instancing  her  winning  the  con- 
fidence and  thus  the  repentance  of  a  young  knight  con- 
demned to  death  for  murder.  "  lo  allora  sentivo  un 
giubilo  ed  un  odore  del  sanguine  suo,  e  non  era  senza 
r  odore  del  mio,  la  quale  io  desidero  spandere  per  lo 
dolce  sposo  Gesu,"  wrote  Catherine.  She  was  the 
Saint  of  Peace,  the  saint  who  dared  to  teach  a  lesson 
of  duty  to  the  Popes  of  the  Middle  Age. 

1  The  Treatise  of  S.  Catherine  of  Genoa  on  Purgatory,  approved 
by  the  Sorbonne,  June  10,  1663,  as  "a  rare  effusion  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  upon  a  pure  and  loving  soul,  and  a  marvellous  token  of 
His  solicitude  for  His  Church  and  His  care  in  enlightening  her 
and  assisting  her  according  to  her  needs,"  is  a  reverent  exposition 
which  might  well  be  regarded  as  an  Eirenicon. 

^  It  is  unnecessary  to  give  detailed  references  to  the  sources  for 
the  life  of  S.  Francis  as  this  is  most  exhaustively  done  by  Professor 
Little  in  the  English  Historical  Review^  October,  1902. 

5 


66  The  English  Saints 

But  S.  Francis  approaches  most  nearly  to  the  position 
of  a  Saint  of  all  lt2i\y.  More  than  anything  else  this  is 
due  to  the  genius  of  brother  Ugolino,  the  author  of  the 
Fioretti  which  is  still  familiar  to  little  children  in  the 
schools  and  remains  the  most  popular  of  all  books  over 
thc  whole  land.  Filled  with  the  romance  of  his  native 
country,  the  simple  friar,  so  pure  in  his  insight,  and 
so  vivid  in  his  realization,  painted  an  immortal  picture 
of  the  Saintly  life  as  it  was  lived  in  the  Middle  Ages,  on 
the  back-ground  of  the  enchanted  country  between  the 
Apennines  and  the  Adriatic,  the  land  of  Monte  Giorgio, 
the  heart  of  Italy. ^  The  portrait  that  he  gives  of 
Francis  of  Assisi  bears  in  its  simplicity  the  certain 
touch  of  truth.  Ugolino,  it  is  true,  draws  himself  when 
he  draws  his  master.  It  is  a  singularly  fresh,  simple, 
childlike  character,  with  its  unfailing  belief  in  the  love 
of  God  and  the  essential  goodness  of  all  that  He  has 
created.  But  it  is,  at  the  core,  poetic,  imaginative,  sym- 
pathetic rather  than  realistic.  The  Fioretti  embodies  the 
true  genius  of  religious  Italy  ;  it  is  indeed  fit  to  be  called 
"  the  breviary  of  the  Italian   people."     The  character 

'  So  M.  Paul  Sabatier  in  the  Preface  to  his  edition  of  the 
I'lorctuin^  p.  V.  "  La  richesse  du  sol  et  le  bienetre  n'y  ont  pourtant 
pas,  coinmc  dans  d'autres  pays,  transforme  le  serf  de  jadis  en  un 
animal  cyoiste  et  matdrialistc,  en  un  ctre  qui  a  d^sappris  de 
souffrir,  mais  n'a  pas  appris  h.  penser  :  ici  le  paysan  est  gai,  ouvert, 
simple,  fin,  accueillant,  enjoud.  Son  sentiment  religieux  tres  vif 
est  fort  different  de  celui  des  habitants  des  Abruzzes  ou  de  la 
Romagne.  L'Eglise  n'a  pas  encore  rdussi  k  detruire  en  son  coeur 
le  cultc  de  la  nature,  et  au  soir  des  jours  d'ete,  lorsque  les  chars' 
rentrent  les  montagnes  de  gerbes,  les  cantiqnes  a  la  Madone, 
chantes  ^  voix  stridente  par  les  jeunes  filles,  alternent  avec  de 
niystdrieuses  hymnes  dbrigine  paienne  que  les  hommes  redisent 
sans  les  comprendre,  comme  une  sorte  de  liturgic.  ' 


National  Saints  67 

of  S.  Francis,  as  Ugolino  Brunforte  saw  it,  is  one  of 
very  clearly  marked  lines.  Humility,  an  intense  belief 
in  the  reality  of  God's  daily  revelation,  a  perfect  sub- 
mission to  His  will,  a  deep  feeling  for  the  pathetic  and  the 
humorous,  an  unstinted  love  of  man,  those  are  its  charac- 
teristics. Legend  already,  in  the  sixty  years  that  have 
elapsed,  plays  about  the  details  of  the  Saint's  life :  we 
have  passed  beyond  the  simple  records  of  S.  Bona- 
ventura  and  Thomas  of  Celano  and  brother  Leo.  There 
could  not  indeed  be  a  better  example  of  the  share  of 
history  and  of  legend  in  the  process  by  which  the  saintly 
life  which  posterity  reverences  is  built  up.  The  main 
outlines  are  quite  clear,  quite  historic.  About  the  char- 
acter itself  there  is  no  doubt.  It  is  the  details,  here 
and  there,  that  have  been  touched,  the  strange  visions 
that  have  been  amplified.  Unconsciously  the  writer 
who  has  so  long  meditated  on  the  simple  wonder  of 
Christian  goodness  is  carried  up  to  heights  of  glorious 
expectation.  "  Go,"  says  Christ  to  S.  Francis,  and 
it  seems  that  the  message  has  come  into  the  heart  of 
brother  Ugolino,  "  Go  and  visit  thy  brothers  and  give 
them  drink  of  the  chalice  of  the  spirit  of  life.''^  Much 
that  was  terrible  lay  before  the  brethren,  in  which  they 
should  taste  the  bitterness  of  sin  :  but  those  who  had 
drunk  of  the  chalice  "  were  translated  by  the  power  of 
God  to  the  place  of  life,  of  light  and  splendour."-  The 
life  of  humility,  and  obedience,  and  sacrifice,  was  for 
them  always  the  true  life,  and  when  they  followed  their 
Lord  along  the  way  of  sorrows  they  carried  always  in 

'  Floretuiii,  ed.  Sabatier  (1902),  p.  196. 

-  Ibid.,  p.  199.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  English  translation 
of  the  Italian,  by  T.  W.  Arnold  (London,  1898),  does  not  represent 
the  authentic  Latin  text. 

5—2 


68  The  English  Saints 

their  hearts  the  memory  of  the  little  brother  Francis 
who  had  taught  them.  As  he  bore  the  stigmata,  they 
bore  in  their  lives  the  marks  of  his  sacrifice,  the  lessons 
of  his  love  for  the  poor  of  Christ.  The  Italian  character 
found  a  true  representation  of  one  side  of  its  rich  expe- 
rience, and  the  ideal  of  S.  Francis  passed  into  the  life 
of  the  people.  It  is  not  a  critical,  combative,  masterful, 
type :  it  is  far  from  the  ideal  of  those  who  take  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  by  violence.  It  is  rather  meek, 
peaceable,  easy  to  be  entreated :  all  its  victories  are 
won  by  love  and  self-sacrificing  devotion.  It  is  that 
ideal  which  has  preserved  to  the  Italian  peasants,  as  the 
centuries  of  oppression  have  drawn  on,  the  voice  of 
God's  compassion  in  the  daily  stress  of  suffering.  Like 
the  Christ  they  have  found 

"  Men's  hearts  hardened,  and  the  tender  hps 
Of  women  loud  in  laughter,  and  the  sobs 
Of  children  helpless,  and  the  sighs  of  slaves, 
And  priests  with  dead  lies  for  the  living  truth. 
And  kings  whose  rights  were  in  their  people's  wrong. 
And  looking,  the  miraculous  tender  eyes, 
Upon  these  perishing  and  gone  astray. 
Lifted  the  hands  of  help,  alone,  unarmed, 
Struck  singly  out,  and  dashed  upon  the  rocks. 
***** 
—So  that  for  ever  since,  in  minds  of  men, 
By  some  true  instinct  this  life  has  survived 
In  a  religious  immemorial  light, 
Pre-eminent  in  one  thing  most  of  all  ; 
The  Man  of  Sorrows  ; — and  the  Cross  of  Christ 
Is  more  to  us  than  all  His  miracles."^ 


1  T/ie  Disciples  (i2th  edition,  1898,  p.  105),  by  Mrs.  Hamilton 
King,  who  has  so  wonderfully  understood  the  Italian  character  in 
its  highest  aspect,  and  the  special  appeal  of  Italian  saintliness.  So 
Archbishop  Benson  {Lifc^  ii.  565)  on  "  il  glorioso  capitano  de'  oppressi 
popoli." 


National  Saints  6g 

The  picture  does  not  owe  its  vigour  to  art  or  legend. 
Already  the  lines  are  clear  in  the  Specnlunt  Pcrfectionis,^ 
written  within  a  few  months  of  the  Saint's  death.  Full 
of  brightness  and  vivacity,  full  of  enthusiastic  zeal  for 
the  reform  of  the  Church,  a  chivalrous  knight  of  the 
Faith,  as  he  thought  were  Charlemagne  and  Roland 
and  Oliver  and  the  holy  martyrs,-  ready  to  die  like 
them,  and  while  he  lived  to  stand  as  a  protest  against 
the  book-learning  which  does  not  profit,  and  to  take  for 
his  motto  scientia  inflat  et  cariias  cFdificat,  he  set  before 
his  age  the  example  of  an  absolute  denial  of  private  aim 
and  private  interest.  And  in  all  this,  like  a  true  son 
of  the  Italian  sky,  he  showed  how  unfailing  were  the 
springs  of  joy  even  in  the  life  of  pathos.  "  It  belongs  to 
the  devil  to  be  sad,  to  us  ever  to  rejoice  in  the  Lord 
and  be  glad."^  In  the  extremity  of  his  asceticism 
Francis  preserved  always  the  genuine  human  feeling  of 
a  simple-hearted  man.  Very  human,  very  pitiful,  is  the 
ideal  of  Italian  saintliness,  and  truly  those  who  have 
followed  it — and  they  have  been  among  the  noblest 
champions  of  Italian  liberty — have  not  been  far  from 
the  kingdom  of  God.  They  have  been  translated  b}' 
the  power  of  Christ  to  the  place  of  life  and  light.* 

1  Ed.  Sabatier,  Paris,  1898. 

'-'  Pp.  lo-ii.     So  he  called  his  friars  knights  of  his  round  table, 

P-  143- 

3  P.  188. 

■*  It  is  characteristic  too  that  S.  Francis  was  so  anxious,  when  he 
obtained,  through  a  vision  of  our  Lord  and  His  Mother,  the  excep- 
tional privilege  of  a  plenary  indulgence  for  all  those  who  having 
confessed  with  true  penitence  should  visit  the  chapel  of  Portiuncula, 
to  procure  a  great  benefit  for  the  whole  Church  without  any  profit 
for  the  Friars.  See  M.  Sabatier's  Un  nouveaic  chapitre  de  la  vie 
de  S.  F.  A.  (Paris,  1896),  and  F.  Francis  Bartholi   Traclatus  de 


70  The  English  Saints 

The  era  of  the  Reformation  brought  with  it  a  number 
of  new  Saints  to  the  Roman  Church  of  the  Continent  : 
some  of  them  such  as  S.  Carlo  Borromeo  or  S.  Cajetan^ 
or  S.  Philip  Neri"  typically  Italian.  But  none  of  them 
can  be  said  to  have  left  such  impress  on  national  ideals 
as  S.  Francis  of  Assisi. 

From  Italy  we  turn  naturally  to  Spain.     It  was  only 


Indulgentia  (Paris,  1900).  Contrast  the  view,  due  doubtless  to 
insufficient  information,  of  Abp.  Benson,  Life^  ii.  564. 

1  On  S.  Cajetan  see  the  Life  by  M.  de  Maulde  La  Claviere.  Of 
the  genuineness  of  Cajetan's  very  highly  emotional  life  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  Kis  position  is  among  the  abnormal  saints,  those 
whom  Professor  James  in  his  Wirieties  of  Religious  Experience 
strangely  regards  as  typical.  The  foundation  of  the  Theatines 
bore  little  relation  to  the  normal  life  of  the  Church.  Their  founders 
were  men  of  striking  personality  ;  their  position  was  for  the 
moment  unique.  That  is  in  brief  their  history.  But  the  work  of 
Cajetan  and  Sadolet  had,  M.  La  Claviere  thought,  a  wider  scope. 
It  was  to  justify  the  Renaissance  in  the  economy  of  Christianity. 
"Is  it  not  true  that,  as  Sadolet  said,  the  supernatural  or  super- 
human element  of  life  does  not  replace  or  destroy  the  natural 
life,  but  crowns  it  ?  Religion's  highest  justification  is  its  moral 
side,  its  provision  of  a  reason  for  living."  But  the  Renaissance 
was  justified  far  more  truly  by  Erasmus,  and  More,  and  by  the 
Reformation. 

^  On  S.  Philip  Neri  see  the  Life  newly  revised  by  Fr.  Antrobus, 
1902.  The  Life  was  originally  written  in  1837.  It  was  translated, 
with  omissions,  under  the  direction  of  Cardinal  Wiseman.  It  is 
now  re-issued  complete,  with  the  addition  of  a  few  notes.  The 
most  important  change  in  the  English  edition  is  the  insertion  of  all 
the  miracles.  On  these  it  is  not  necessary  to  say  more  than  that 
they  are  recorded  "for  the  devotees  of  the  saint,"  and  that  we  may 
at  least  endorse  the  opinion  of  Father  Antrobus  that  they  "are  of 
themselves  most  interesting  reading,  and,  moreover,  give  a  graphic 
picture  of  Italian  life  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  ; 
they  also  help  us  to  understand  better  the  rapid  increase  of  devotion 
to  Saint  Philip  in  Italy." 


National  Saints  71 

in  the  sixteenth  century  that  the  characteristic  type  of 
Spanish  sanctity  was  developed,  the  type  of  stern  reaht}- 
and  concrete  faith,  the  type  of  S.  Teresa  and  S.  Juan 
de  la  Cruz.  But  in  earlier  days  when  the  land  was 
struggling  to  be  free  there  was  a  different  type.  The 
warrior  saint  San  Fernando  who  made  so  good  an  end 
to  his  life  of  war  is  an  example  of  the  fact  that  the  duty 
of  Crusade,  in  the  stress  of  the  Moorish  occupation, 
overshadowed  and,  it  might  seem,  superseded  all  other 
Christian  duties. 

Thus  his  son  Alfonso  el  Sabio  wrote  of  him,  summing 
up  the  days  that  lay  beyond  the  great  Christian  victories 
of  his  life — 

"  And  the  days  of  his  life  after  that  Seville  was  won 
were  three  years  and  five  months,  in  which  time,  as  in 
all  his  life  before  and  after,  he  served  God  loyally,  and 
they  could  never  prevail  with  him  to  return  to  Castille. 
But  his  eye  was  fixed  to  pass  over  the  sea  to  conquer 
that  part  of  heathendom  (la  morisma)  that  lies  beyond 
.  .  .  and  it  was  certain  that  many  Princes  of  great 
lands  would  have  yielded  to  him  had  he  crossed  thither, 
and  thus  he  had  won  more  lands  and  more  again  beyond 
had  God  so  willed  and  lengthened  his  life.  For  in  him 
was  no  remissness  but  ever  his  heart  was  set  to  do  battle 
with  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  God,  the  Blessed.'"^ 

The  claim  to  holiness  lay  in  the  Crusading  spirit. 
But  always  the  knighthood  claimed  to  be  Christian  : 

1  On  S.  Ferdinand  see  his  life  by  his  son  Alfonso  el  Sabio 
Coronica  de  Espaila,  ed.  Fl.  Docampo,  Zamora,  1541,  pt.  iv.,  cap.  1 1. 
It  is  worth  noticing  that  contemporary  chroniclers  speak  warmly  of 
his  domestic  virtues.  Lucas  de  Tuy,  for  instance,  speaks  of  his 
great  reverence  for  his  mother,  comparable  to  that  of  his  cousin 
S.  Louis. 


72  The  English  Saints 

even  the  Cid,  buried  in  Moorish  dress,  was  vindicated 
by  the  popular  voice  for  a  Christian  saint. ^ 

Such  are  the  men  whom  Calderon,  the  great  Christian 
knight  of  letters,  immortalized  in  his  idealization  of 
El  Principe  Constante,  one  of  the  noblest  pictures 
of  medieval  Christian  aim  that  man  ever  drevv.- 

^  On  the  Cid  see  Dozy  Recherches  siir  Vhistoire  de  r Espag7ie  and 
H.  Butler  Clarke,  TJie  Cid,  preface  p.  iv.  Philip  II.,  who,  says 
M.  Dozy,  would  have  burnt  him  if  he  had  lived  in  his  reign,  en- 
deavoured to  procure  his  canonization. 

^  There  is  a  great  similarity  between  the  story  of  S.  Edmund  the 
East  Anglian  King  and  the  chief  thought  of  El  Principe  Constante. 
There  the  Prince  in  captivity  may  have  his  life  if  he  will  give  up  a 
city  to  the  Moors.  Like  Edmund,  he  will  not  place  his  people 
under  heathen  rule. 

[El  Principe  Constante,  Act  II.,  Sc.  2.) 
(I  use,  but  slightly  alter,  D.  F.  McCarthy's  translation.) 
"  Were  it  well  so  to  occasion 

This  contingency  of  sin 

By  our  conduct  ? 
*  *  *  * 

Is  it  right,  one  life  should  cost 

Many  lives  ?     And  that  one  being 

Of  no  import  if  'twere  lost  ? 

Who  am  I  ?     Am  I  then  greater 

Than  a  man  ?  for  if  to  be 

A  Prince  makes  a  distinction, 

I'm  a  slave.     Nobility 

Cannot  be  a  slave's  adornment, 

I  am  one  :  .  .  . 

.And  if  so,  who  gives  advice 

That  the  poor  life  of  a  capti\e 

Should  be  bought  at  such  a  price  ? 

Death  is  but  the  loss  of  being  ; 

I  lost  mine  amid  the  fight  : 

That  being  gone,  my  life  de])arte(l. 

P>eing  dead,  it  is  not  right 

That  so  many  lives  should  perish 

For  the  ransom  of  a  corse  1" 


National  Saints  73 

But  in  one  aspect  at  least  the  Spanish  saints  represent 
a  very  different  type  from  the  ItaHan.  Though  both 
take  their  starting-point  from  the  doctrine  of  sacrifice, 
there  could  hardly  be  a  greater  contrast  than  between 
S.  Francis  of  Assisi  and  S.  John  of  the  Cross. ^  The 
Spanish  saint  was  an  ascetic  of  the  most  extreme  order. 
His  vigils,  fasts,  penances,  discipline,  were  carried  to 
an  excess  which  seriously  interfered  with  the  work  set 
before  him.  Yet  he  was  a  genuine  reformer,  one  of 
those  whose  determination,  and  devotion,  and  humility 
revived  the  internal  strength  of  the  Spanish  Church 

And  then  he  closes  his  life  with  an  appeal  to  all  sufferers  to  look 
to  the  end,  to  the  cross  of  Christ,  to  the  victory  of  Christ,  which 
sanctifies  suffering  and  glorifies  faithfulness. 

"  Let  this  convince 

All  of  you  in  pains  and  sorrow, 

How  to-day  a  Constant  Prince 

Loves  the  Catholic  faith  to  honour 

And  the  law  of  God  to  hold." 
Calderon  when  he  wrote  his  magnificent  drama  had  sounded  to 
the  bottom  the  intense  loyalty  of  a  Christian  people  to  the  memory 
of  an  heroic  death.  The  "  Constant  Prince "  is  a  picture  of  the 
faith  of  medieval  Christianity  in  all  its  strength  and  self-sacrifice — 
it  is  in  poetry  what  Englishmen  for  centuries  remembered  that 
King  Edmund  had  been  in  act.     See  Lecture  IV. 

1  The  two  well  known  English  lives  greatly  resemble  each  other. 
Mr.  Baring-Gould  adds  only  some  extracts  from  the  writings  of 
S.  Teresa  to  what  was  written  by  Alban  Butler,  whose  facts  he 
follows  with  an  occasional  sarcastic  comment  and  whose  text  he 
frequently  quotes  verbatim.  A  highly  characteristic  example  of 
seventeenth  century  hagiology  is  the  rare  work,  embellished  with 
engravings  of  remarkable  interest,  the  Represetitacion  de  la  vida 
del  bienaventurado  p.  fr.  Juan  de  la  Cruz,  primer  Carmelita 
Descalco,  por  el  R.  P.  F.  Caspar  de  la  A?inunciacion,  Religioso 
de  la  Misma  Orden.  Bruxas,  1678.  There  is  a  life,  compiled  from 
the  early  lives,  by  David  Lewis,  1897. 


74  The  English  Saints 

and  rendered  all  attempts  at  reform  on  Protestant  lines 
ineffectual.^  The  reform  of  the  Carmelites  was  indeed 
a  considerable  work,  though  the  reformer  cannot  be 
compared  in  the  active  good  he  did  to  S.  Francis.  He 
had  a  true  love  of  God,  but  his  spiritual  struggles  read 
like  the  ravings  of  one  possessed  :  and  in  his  biographies 
we  have  hagiology  run  mad.  Where  all  is  simplicity 
with  S.  Francis,  with  S.  John  every  detail  of  the  life 
becomes  transformed  by  miracle.  When  he  was  a 
child  he  discomfited  an  "  inopinado  monstruo "  which 
rose  at  him  from  a  lake  :  when  he  was  a  man  his  prayers 
frequently  raised  the  sick  and  even  the  dead  :  and  after 
his  death  his  relics  still  worked  extraordinary  cures. 
All  this  is  told  with  surprising  vivacity  by  his  biographer. 
Fray  Caspar  de  la  Annunciacion,  whose  moralizing  and 
pertinacious  exactness  breathes  a  different  air  from  the 
childlike  love  of  Ugolino.  S.  John  of  the  Cross  had 
like  S.  Francis  the  stigmata,  but  the  tale  is  told  very 
differently.  Yet  in  spite  of  his  admirers  S.  John  of  the 
Cross  was  a  true  saint."'  He  was  the  most  perfect 
embodiment  of  entire  humility  that  an  age  of  strange 
contrasts  had  produced.  That  he  might  every  day  of 
his  life  suffer  for  God  :  that  he  might  not  die  as  superior 
of  his  order :  that  he  might  die  rather  in  disgrace,  and 
humiliation,  and  contempt :  these  were  his  three  con- 
stant prayers.  And  with  that  he  said  that  "  he  who 
loves  aught  save  God  makes  his  soul  incapable  of  union 
with  Him  and  transformation  into  His  likeness,  for  the 
vileness  of  the  creature  is  even  less  capable  of  the  glory 

'  For  the  early  Spanish  Protestants  sec  Alencndez  Pelayo  Los 
Heterodoxos  Espafiolcs,  tome  ii. 

-  Y.  Caspar,  Reprcse?i/acioii,  e.j^.,  pp.  82,  245,  274,  310. 


National  Saints  75 

of  the  Creator  than  is  darkness  of  hght."  It  was  a 
strange  saying  in  the  age  of  Charles  V.  and  Phihp  11. 
His  entire  and  absolute  humility  afforded  a  sharp  con- 
trast to  the  pride  of  race  and  creed  and  valour  which 
carried  his  nation  into  excesses  of  tyranny  and  persecu- 
tion, a  contrast  which  the  nation  needed  and  which 
served  to  keep  alive  the  fire  of  Divine  Love  in  many 
hearts.  The  miracles  which  were  so  eagerly  collected 
to  do  him  honour, and  on  which  the  miserable  Charles  II., 
the  last  of  the  Spanish  Hapsburgs,  based  his  petition  for 
the  beatification,  were  not  the  true  records  of  the  man 
who  went  simply  where  he  was  told  to  go  and  ^^•orked 
and  prayed  as  the  spirit  of  God  guided  him  in  the 
way.^ 

The  chivalrous  Spaniards  knew  their  faults,  and 
cherished  the  example  that  refuted  them.  But  the 
influence  of  the  great  Spanish  saints  was  due  most  of 
all  to  their  characteristic  sense  of  reality.  Heaven  and 
hell  were  to  them  the  most  real,  the  only  real,  facts. 
It  was  from  this  tremendous  absorption  in  a  world 
beyond  their  sight  that  they  were  ready  to  use,  and 
to  defend,  any  means,  however  terrible,  to  save  a  single 
soul.  While  they  did  not  hesitate  to  inflict  pain  they 
were  equally  ready  to  suffer  it."'     They  exacted  submis- 

1  S.  John  of  the  Cross  was  l)eatified  on  September  14,  1674,  by 
Clement  X.  and  canonized  in  1726  by  Benedict  XIII.  But  the  truest 
testimony  to  his  worth  is  the  words  of  S.  Teresa,  "  que  el  Padre 
Fray  Juan  de  la  Cruz  era  una  de  las  Almas  mas  puras  y  santas  que 
Uios  tenia  en  su  iglesia,  y  que  le  avia  infundido  Su  Divina  Magestad 
grandes  Tesoros  de  Luz,  Pureza,  y  Sabiduria  del  Cielo."  F.  Caspar, 
op.  ciL,  p.  59. 

2  Thus,  for  example,  Admiral  Oc|ucndo  when  he  was  dying  of 
fever  after  the  Armada's  return  raved  continually  for  water.     At 


76  The  Engtjsh  Saints 

sion  and  they  were  eager  themselves  to  submit.^  If  the 
Spanish  saints  were  not  cruel,  as  those  who  do  not 
know  them  have  fancied,  they  were  certainly  in  a 
marked  degree  austere,  and  they  were  severe  with  a 
severity  which  became  harsh  indeed  when  it  touched 
themselves.  Such  severity,  however,  was  hardly  more 
than  a  veil  over  the  abundant  human  interest  of  the 
greatest  of  Spanish  saints,  S.  Teresa.- 

last  when  it  was  seen  that  he  could  not  recover  it  was  gi\en  him. 
He  seized  it,  paused,  and  then  poured  it  on  the  ground.  "  I  otter 
it  in  memory  of  Christ's  sufiferings,"  he  said,  and  he  lay  down  to 
die.  A  spirit  of  intense  austerity  long  dominated  Spain.  It  still 
lingers  in  the  provinces  in  the  type  nick-named  apostoUcos. 

^  In  1576  Fray  Luis  de  Leon  (one  of  the  biographers  of  S.  Teresa) 
was  set  free  from  his  five  years'  imprisonment  in  the  dungeon  of 
the  Inquisition.  The  students  flocked  to  his  lecture-room  expecting 
to  hear  an  eloquent  defence  of  his  translation  of  the  Song  of 
Solomon  or  a  protest  against  his  treatment.  His  lecture  began 
"We  were  saying  the  other  day.  .  .  ."— \'illanue\a,  Vida  de  Fi-ay 
Luis  de  Leon,  i.  240. 

2  The  best  lives  of  S.  Teresa  are  :  i.  Libro  de  Su  Vida,  her 
autobiography,  printed  by  order  of  the  Empress.  It  was  written 
in  1562,  twenty  years  before  her  death.  It  was  examined  and 
officially  approved,  and  it  has  a  preface  by  Luis  de  Leon.  She 
says  that  she  was  ordered  to  write  "the  way  of  prayer,  and  the 
favours  the  Lord  has  shown  me":  she  wished,  but  was  not  allowed 
to  write  her  "many  sins  and  worthless  life."  She  says  little  of 
events  and  much  of  mental  states.  Of  the  forty  short  chapters, 
seventeen  are  taken  up  by  a  treatise  on  prayer  and  say  nothing 
directly  of  her  own  experience.  2.  Francisco  Ribera,  S.J. ,  Vida  de 
la  inadre  Teresa  de  Jesus.  Salamanca,  1590.  3.  Fray  Uiego  de 
Yepes  (confessor  of  Felipe  II.),  Vida  viriudes  y  milagros  de  la 
bienavenlurada  virgen  Teresa  de  Jesus.  Madrid,  1599.  4.  Juan 
de  Jesus  Maria,  Compendium  VitcB  B.  Virg.  Teresia.  Romfe,  1609. 
This  life  was  studied  by  Paul  V.  before  Teresa's  canonization, 
March  12,  1622.  5.  Fray  Geronimo  (iracidn,  Viriudes  y  Funda- 
ciones  de  la  inadre  Teresa  de  Jesus.     Bruselas,  161 1.     6.  After  this 


National  Saints  'j'j 

Her  life  was  indeed  a  remarkable  one,  one  which  it 
is  difficult  to  conceive  outside  Spain  when  the  Middle 
Age  was  giving  place  to  the  ferment  of  the  period  of 
Reform,  Teresa  belonged  in  a  great  measure  to  the 
past.  Her  father  was  of  a  noble  family,  a  man  of 
solemn  piety  touched  with  sympathetic  love.  From 
the  first  the  idea  of  Eternity  was  strong  in  her  mind. 
"  Siempre,  siempre,"  she  and  her  elder  brother  would  say 
when  they  were  children,  trying  to  realize  an  eternity 
of  bliss  or  pain.  The  romance  of  religion  and  its 
sacrifice  appealed  to  her  childish  imagination,  as  was 
natural  in  such  a  family  as  hers.  She  and  her  brother 
as  children  determined  to  set  out  for  the  land  of  the 
Moors  and  beg  to  have  their  heads  cut  off.  When  this 
project  failed  they  set  themselves  to  build  hermitages 
in  the  garden.  Teresa  loved  solitude,  almsgiving, 
prayer,  and  she  looked  back  in  later  years  to  her  child- 
hood as  a  state  of  hohness  from  which  she  fell.  Her 
mother  died  when  she  was  twelve  years  old,  and  in  the 
first  agony  of  her  grief  she  besought  the  Blessed  Virgin 
to  be  her  mother,  and  it  seemed  to  her  that  her  prayer 
was  heard. 

But  her  fife  was  not  to  be  wholly  untroubled.  She 
read  the  old  romances  and  she  thought  that  they  led 

come  lives  in  verse  like  that  of  Pablo  Verdugo  (Madrid,  1615), 
and  books  like  La  Ainazona  Cristiana  by  Bartolome  Segura 
(1615).  A  good  Life  is  that  by  Fray  Juan  de  San  Luis,  Hisloria 
de  la  Vida  y  Muerte  .  .  .  de  Sta.  Teresa  de  Jesus.  Valencia, 
1813-14.  The  most  copious  Life  is  contained  in  680  pages  of  the 
Bollandist  Ada  SS.,  Tomus  vii.,  Octobris,  dies  xv.  and  xvi. 
Lastly,  there  is  the  life  by  Gabnela  Cunninghame  Graham,  1894, 
a  work  of  much  industry,  but  utterly  without  religious  sympathy 
or  realization. 


78  The  English  Saints 

her  away  from  God  :  she  Hstened  to  declarations  of  love, 
and  seemed  to  have  given  up  all  thought  of  a  religious 
life.  Even  when  she  was  placed  in  a  convent  at  Avila, 
though  she  was  much  beloved  ("  for  the  Lord  gave  me 
grace  to  please  wherever  I  might  be  "),  she  still  hated 
the  idea  of  a  nun's  life,  and  she  felt  so  hardened  that 
"she  could  read  through  the  whole  Passion  and  shed 
no  tear."  An  illness  for  a  time  caused  her  to  be  taken 
from  the  convent  and  placed  in  her  married  sister's 
house,  and  there  she  came  under  good  influences  and 
decided  to  take  the  veil,  though  "  more  through  servile 
fear  than  love."  Her  health  was  always  weak,  and  she 
suffered  from  fainting  fits,  which  she  regarded  as  a 
temptation  to  excuse  herself  from  the  hardships  of 
religion.  Her  father  refused  permission  to  her  to  take 
vows  before  his  death.  She  disobeyed,  and  immediately 
on  making  her  profession  was  overcome  by  a  gladness 
\\hich  never  afterwards  left  her.  She  was  nineteen 
years  old.  During  the  first  year  her  health  suffered  so 
much  that  her  father  took  her  away  for  a  year  to 
undergo  a  cure.  She  found  a  book  on  prayer  that 
helped  her,  but  says  that  for  twenty  years  she  never 
found  a  confessor  who  understood  her.  She  attained 
"  the  prayer  of  quietness  and  sometimes  that  of 
union."  ^  She  laments  her  lack  of  power  of  thought 
and  imagination.  She  could  not  pray  without  a  book 
before  her.  She  bewails  her  lack  of  patience,  the 
mercenary  spirit  of  her  worship  stimulated  only  by 
fear  and  hope,  and  declares  she  had  then  little  love  of 
God.  She  laments  the  harm  done  her  by  half-educated 
and  over-lenient  confessors,  and  says  that  if  she  had 
'    Vidd,  cap.  4. 


National  Saints  79 

died  then  her  soul  must  have  been  lost,  partly  through 
their  fault. 

After  a  dangerous  illness,  she  suffered  a  religious 
relapse  which  she  attributes  to  the  fact  that  her  convent 
was  not  cloistered.  She  recommends  parents  rather  to 
marry  their  daughters  however  humbly  than  to  place 
them  in  such  houses.  She  was  warned  by  a  vision  of 
Christ  with  severe  countenance,  as  also  by  the  sight  of  a 
great  toad  very  swift  of  foot  which  she  believed  to  be 
supernatural.  For  a  year  she  could  not  really  pray, 
and  to  ascribe  this  to  humility  was,  she  says,  one 
of  her  greatest  temptations.  Nevertheless  she  con- 
tinued to  receive  great  favours  in  prayer,  and  this 
tortured  her  with  a  sense  of  her  ingratitude.  For 
twenty  years  her  prayers  were  interrupted  by  worldly 
thoughts  and  her  enjoyment  of  the  world  by  com- 
punction. She  had  to  force  herself  to  pray  and 
would  have  gladly  accepted  any  penance  rather 
than  this  obligation  :  she  dreaded  the  hour  but  at- 
tributes her  salvation  to  her  persistence.  She  had  to 
learn  that  great  lesson  which  no  one  expressed  more 
clearly  than  she,  quite  early  in  her  life,  when  she  said 
"  I  am  sure  that  great  evils  could  be  avoided  if  we  clearly 
understood  that  what  we  have  to  do  is  not  to  be  on  our 
guard  against  men  but  to  be  on  our  guard  against  dis- 
pleasing God." 

Such  was  the  interior  life  of  S.  Teresa,  as  her  auto- 
biography reveals  it.  She  might  so  far  seem  but  one 
of  the  greatest  of  the  mystics.  But  it  was  as  a  practical 
Reformer  that  this  truly  Spanish  saint  won  at  least  an 
equal  fame. 

She  carried  through  a  revival  of  thorough  monasticism 


8o  The  English  Saints 

in  the  Carmelites,  by  the  sheer  force  of  her  character, 
and  in  the  face  of  the  fiercest  opposition.  And  her 
foundations  were  the  wonder  of  her  age.^  Busied  in 
ceaseless  activities  of  organization  and  devotion  she 
yet  found  time  to  be  one  of  the  most  prolific  of  writers.- 
She  combined  in  an  extraordinary  degree  mortification 
with  cheerfulness,^  an  astonishing  thing  in  the  Spaniards 
of  her  time.  She  was  witty,  gay,  supremely  natural, 
at  the  height  of  her  self-sacrifice.  Spain  delighted  to 
learn  from  her  that  the  service  of  God  gave  a  joyful 
heart.*     The  history  of  the  attempt  to  obtain  her  re- 

^  Luis  de  Leon  {Letter  to  Prioress,  Nuns  Barefoot  ofCarmel)  says, 
"The  third  wonder  is  that  in  the  space  of  twenty  years,  which  is 
about  the  time  that  has  passed  from  the  first  foundation  of  the 
mother  to  that  at  which  I  write,  she  has  filled  Spain  with  monasteries 
in  which  more  than  a  thousand  rehgious  serve  God." 

-  Her  writings  fill  more  than  i,ooo  small  print  double  column 
of  large  8vo.  pages  in  the  Biblioteca  de  Rivadeneyra.  a.  Method 
Visiting  Convents  of  Nuns.  /3.  Book  of  her  Life.  7.  Her  Reports. 
5.  Book  of  Constitutions,  e.  Book  of  Foundations.  ^  Precepts 
of  S.  Teresa.  77.  The  Way  of  Perfection,  d.  Concepts  of  the 
Love  of  (}od.  I.  The  Mansions  (of  the  Soul),  k.  A  small  collec- 
tion of  verse,  carols,  and  glosses.  X.  A  collection  of  over  400 
letters. 

'^  Mr.  H.  Butler  Clarke,  to  whom  I  owe  everything,  here  and 
elsewhere,  that  I  know  about  Spain,  compares,  with  discreet 
apologies,  the  character  of  "  S.  Teresa,  and  of  her  sisters  nowa- 
days "  to  that  of  Pepita  Jimdnez  in  Juan  Valera's  charming 
study.  "The  same  vigorous  sanity  and  healthiness  of  mind 
appears  in  both,  though  one  is  half  blinded  by  human  love  and  the 
other  by  a  spiritual  passion."  He  notes  that  the  fourth  article  of 
S.  Teresa's  Book  of  Precepts  enjoins  cheerfulness  on  her  nuns. 
See  also  a  very  interesting  paper  by  Louis  Valentin  on  the  1890 
edition  of  her  letters  in  the  Bulletin  dc  Litt&ature  Ecclesiastique 
-bublic  par  IHnstitut  caiJiolique  de  Toulouse,  Dec,  1901. 

■•  Speaking  of  her  nuns  Luisde  Leon  says  :  "Neither  does  labour 
weary  them,  nor  the  confinement  of  the  cloister  irk  them  nor  sick- 


National  Saints  ^i 

cognition  as  the  Patron  of  Spain  shows  how  thoroughly 
she  represented,  and  was  recognized  to  represent,  the 
new  ideals  of  national  life  which  the  end  of  the  Crusade 
and  the  era  of  riches  and  power  brought  with  them.^ 


ness  sadden  them,  nor  does  death  affright  or  dismay  them  but 
rather  rejoice  and  cheer.  But  above  all  that  which  is  the  greatest 
marvel  is  the  good  will  (sador),  if  we  may  so  speak,  the  ease  with 
which  they  do  that  which  is  the  hardest.  For  mortification  is  their 
delight  :  and  resignation  a  sport  {juego')  and  the  harshness  of 
penance  a  pastime.  And  as  though  taking  their  solace  and  pleasure 
they  actually  carry  out  deeds  that  astonish  nature,  and  they  have 
turned  the  exercise  of  the  heroic  virtues  to  a  pleasant  diversion." 
It  is  most  notable  that  Fray  Luis  de  Leon,  who  wrote  the  above  in 
a  Preface  to  her  autobiography,  set  forth  the  Spanish  ideal  in 
secular  life  in  his  famous  La  Pcrfecta  Casada,  a  commentary  on 
Proverbs  cap.  31,  addressed  to  Doha  Maria  Varela  Osorio.  Though 
treating  of  married  life  it  is  well-nigh  impossible  but  that  he  had 
Teresa  in  his  mind  when  writing  some  passages,  particularly  in  the 
Introduction  and  in  cap.  XV.  and  X\'I.  (ed.  Barcelona,  1884, 
pp.  97-103)  when  treating  of  the  text. 

Fortitudo  et  decor  indumentum  ejus,  et  ridebit  in  die  novissimo. 

Os  suum  aperuit  sapientia-  et  lex  clemcntiic  in  lingua  ejus. 
A  recent  book  {Studies  iti  iJie  Lives  of  the  Saints^  by  Edward 
Hutton)  which  takes  a  somewhat  ''precious"  and  patronizing  view 
of  the  heroes  of  the  Cross  says  of  S.  Catherine  of  Genoa,  "like  all 
the  saints,  she  is  not  concerned  either  with  joy  itself  or  with  the 
joyful."  This,  hardly  true  of  S.  Catherine,  is  quite  untrue  of 
S.  Teresa,  of  whom  aho  the  writer  says  that  "to  prayer,  with  its 
terrible  experiences  and  expressions,  its  illimitable  deserts,  its 
maddening  thirsts,  its  visions  and  mirages,  it  is  to  this  she  directs 
herself  and  us."  S.  Teresa  certainly  did  not  find  prayer  terrible 
but  perpetual  joy.  The  saints  indeed  have  more  than  any  other 
characteristic  that  of  "  always  rejoicing." 

1  She  was  canonized  May  12,  1622,  with  three  other  Spanish 
saints,  S.  Ignacio  of  Loyola,  S.  Francisco  Xavier  and  S.  Isidore  of 
Seville.  See  Benedict  XI V.,  Z>^  Canonizatione,  vol.  xiii., pp.  228  sqq. 
About  30  years  after  her  death,  and  before  her  canonization,  began 
the  mo\ement  to  obtain  for  her  the  position  of  Patroness  of  Spain. 

6 


82  The  English  Saints 

If  the  fame  of  S.  Francis  Xavier  belongs  to  the  whole 
peninsula  S.  John  of  God  ^  is  typically  a  Portuguese 
saint,  and  where  the  adventurers  of  that  hardy  nation 

The  movement  gathered  strength  and  was,  of  course,  hotly  pushed 
by  the  CarmeHtes  at  the  time  of  the  canonization  (1622).  In  1626 
the  Cortes  petitioned  in  her  favour  and  by  papal  brief  of  July  31, 
1627,  she  was  appointed  to  share  the  patronate  with  S.  James. 
The  matter  called  forth  one  of  the  hottest  controversies  of  the  age. 
The  old-fashioned  Spaniards  were  wild  with  indignation  that  the 
.Son  of  Thunder  who  so  often  had  appeared  among  them  on  his 
white  horse,  as  at  Cla\ijo,  slaying  the  infidels  should  be  degraded 
now  that  the  crusade  was  complete.  The  chapter  of  Santiago  de 
Compostela  entered  the  field,  Spain  was  divided  into  two  camps, 
pamphlets  poured  from  the  press  and  sermons  from  the  pulpit,  and 
the  contending  parties  did  not  scruple  to  review  narrowly  the  lives 
of  the  rival  claimants.  Two  most  curious  writings  of  the  time  by 
Ouevedo  the  great  satirist  have  come  down.  i.  Memorial  por  el 
Patronato  de  Santiago.  Madrid,  1628.  2.  Su  Espada por  Santiago, 
solo y  ihtico  patron  de  la  Espafias,  to  be  found  in  vol.  ii.,  pp.  423-458, 
Obrax  de  Quevedo.  Ed.  A.  Fernandez  Guerra.  This  was  addressed 
to  the  King.  Quevedo  wrote  also  to  the  Pope.  By  Brief  of  Jan.  8, 
1630,  Santiago  was  restored  to  his  position  of  sole  Patron.  Still 
more  strange.  The  controversy  after  nearly  two  centuries  was 
revived  at  the  beginning  of  the  XlXth.  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
Peninsular  War  (June  '}f),  18 12)  S.  Teresa  was  solemnly  declared 
Patron  of  Spain  by  the  Cortes  that  made  the  famous  Constitution 
of  181 2.  This  act  of  the  Cortes  was  revoked  like  all  others  by 
Fernando  VII.  on  his  restoration.  See  F.  Merimde  Vie  et  QLuvres 
de  Francisco  de  Quevedo.     Paris,  1886. 

1  For  his  life  see  Obras  del  Venerable  Maestro  Juan  de  Avila 
(1759),  caps.  13,  14,  15,  a  contemporary  account  of  him  by  the 
saint  whose  sermon  caused  his  conversion.  La  Fuente,  Hist.  Eccl. 
de  Espa/la,  v.  297-8  :  Gams,  Kirchengeschichte  Ton  Spanien.,  iii.  (2) 
193,  gives  the  following  note  :  Franc  de  Castro,  Miraculosa  vida 
y  Santas  obras  del  b.  Juan  de  Dies.  Granada,  1588,  16 13;  Burgos, 
1624. — Lateinisch  in  Acta  Ss.,  8  Mart  i,  p.  809-8 [4-835. — 
Aus  Anlass  seinor  Seligsprechung  erschien  von  Anton  v.  Govea, 
Bischof  von  Cyrene  :  Historia  de  la  Vida.,  y  muerte.,  y  niilagros  del 
glorioso  Patriarcha  v  Padre  de  Pobres  San  Juan  de  Dios  Jundador 


National  Saints  83 

went  they  carried  his  memory  with  honour.  Among 
the  splendid  churches  which  adorned  the  great  city  of 
Goa,  and  whose  ruins  now  stand  out,  wreathed  in 
luxuriant  creepers,  in  the  tropical  jungle  that  covers 
much  of  what  was  once  the  Christian  capital  of  the 
Indies,  there  was  none  finer  than  that  which  was  dedi- 
cated in  his  name.  Converted  it  is  said  by  a  single 
sermon  (though  his  history  disproves  the  tale),  he  turned 
the  spirit  of  his  race  to  the  service  of  God.  He  too 
went  to  Africa,  but  only  that  he  might  succour  and 
relieve  the  slaves. 

He  tended  the  sick  in  hospitals,  and  he  founded  an 
order  (the  Order  of  Charity)  for  visiting  the  sick  and 
poor.  Shepherd,  soldier,  servant,  chained  slave,  peddler 
of  pious  books,  tortured  as  a  lunatic,  a  beggar  that 
he  might  support  and  nurse  the  poor,  a  preacher 
of  conversion,  a  skilled  physician  of  the  soul,  his 
was  a  life  of  active  beneficence  :  and  the  Portuguese 
could  carry  out  their  distant  ventures  under  no  happier 
inspiration  than  that  of  his  words  "  Labour  without 
ceasing  to  do  all  the  good  works  that  are  in  your  power, 


de  la  Orden  de  la  Hospitalidad,  Madrid,  1624,  4to.,  und  1632.— 
Cadix,  1647.  — Erweiterte  Ausgabe,  Madr.,  1669  ;  daselbst,  1674.— 
Lateinisch  in  Acta  Sc/or.,  Mart  i,  p.  835-858. — H.  Perdicaro, 
Vita  di.  s.  Giovanni  di  Dios,  Palerm.,  1666,  4to. — J.  Girard,  de 
Villethierry,  Vie  de  s.  Jean  de  Dieu,  Institiiteiir  et  patriarche  de 
Vordre  des  religieux  de  la  Chariie.  Paris,  1691,  410.  — Wasser- 
burger,  Petr — in  1000  Singgesdtzen  vet-fasste  Lebensbeschreibung 
Johannis  de  Deo.  Wien,  1767,  8vo.— Wilmet,  Leben  des  heiligen 
Jokann  von  Golf,  Aus  dem  Fransos.  Regensburg,  1862.  I  owe 
this  bibliography  to  the  kindness  of  the  Rev.  Wentworth  Webster. 
The  life  in  Baring-Gould's  Lives  of  the  Sni/ifs  follows  .Alban 
liutler's,  frequently  verbatim,  and  is  drawn  from  F.  de  Castro. 

6—2 


84  The  English  Saints 

while  time  is  still  given  you."  He  died  in  1550.^  He 
was  a  worthy  rival  of  S.  Francis  Xavier. 

S.  Francis  was  like  S.  Ignatius  Loyola  a  true  Basque. 
The  great  founder  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  had  indeed 
all  the  characteristics  of  that  sturdy  people  in  their 
excellencies  and  their  limitations.  He  had  all  the 
power  of  organization,  the  independence,  the  exclusive- 
ness,  the  reticence,  the  faculty  for  self-government  in  a 
combination  of  democracy  with  subordination,  which 
are  so  strikingly  marked  in  the  Basque  communities  to 
this  day.  Still  in  the  Basque  country  Ignacio  is  among 
the  commonest  names,  and  the  life  of  the  great  organizer 
of  the  Catholic  Reaction  has  made  a  profound  im- 
pression on  the  people. 

But  still  S.  Francis  Xavier  is,  even  to  the  Basques  it 
would  seem,  more  attractive.  By  the  scattered  farm- 
steads, under  the  great  chestnuts  and  oaks,  arc  many 
detached  little  chapels  dedicated  in  his  name,  where 
mass  is  said  on  his  festival.-  Yet  he  belongs,  like 
Ignacio,  to  a  much  wider  world :  and  more  than  any 
other  country  Portugal  has  claimed  him  for  her  own. 
It  is  at  Goa,  one  of  the  most  wonderful  examples  of 
the  perfect  fitness  of  the  religion  of  Christ  for  the 
peoples  of  the  East,  that  his  body  rests, ^  suspended  over 

1  He  was  beatified  Sept.  21,  1630,  by  Urban  VIII.  The 
Bollandist  life  was  published  in  1668  and  he  is  then  "i)\  Joannes 
dc  Deo  Fund.  Hospit."     Alexander  VIII.  canonized  him  in  1690. 

2  I  am  told  that  "a  lady  professing  to  be  a  member  of  his  family 
has  lately  brought  some  relics  from  Goa  and  is  attempting  to  make 
them  the  centre  of  a  special  cult." 

"'  An  arm  however  was  cut  off  in  1614  by  the  Pope's  orders  to  be 
taken  as  a  relic  to  Rome.  A  particularly  devout  lady  took  the 
opportunity  to  bite  off  a  toe  (some  say  it  was  earlier).  This  I 
think  has  not  been  traced.     There  are  two  toes  missing  now.     It 


National  Saints  85 

the  altar  in  the  chapel  sacred  to  his  memory,  devoutly 
venerated  by  the  simple  Indians,  who  owe  their  happi- 
ness in  the  family  of  God  to  the  abiding  inspiration  of 
his  mission.  There,  in  that  great  city  of  ruins  set  in 
the  encroaching  tropical  forest,  are  the  last  and  greatest 
memorials  of  the  greatest  of  missionaries,  gorgeous  in 
their  barbaric  richness  like  the  Church  of  Bom  Jesus, 
or  bare  and  simple  like  the  little  chapel  of  the  Ecstasy. 
There,  in  the  cathedral  church,  is  the  font  in  which  he 
baptized  hundreds  of  his  converts:  there  are  the  splendid 
gate  of  the  church  of  S.  Francis,  through  which  he  often 
passed,  and  the  ruins  of  the  college  and  church  of  S.  Paul, 
where  he  was  when  there  came  to  him  the  overpowering 
consciousness  of  the  Divine  presence  which  made  him  cry 
"  Domine  sat  est."  The  Portuguese  indeed  have  made 
S.  Francis  for  them  the  pattern  saint.  He  embodied 
their  splendid  spirit  of  adventure,  their  determination 
and  recklessness,  their  subordination  of  immediate  to 
far  distant  fame.  He  was  the  pioneer  of  the  great 
missionary  conquests,  the  organizer  of  enterprise,  the 
teacher  of  successful  method :  and,  where  temporal 
power  decays,  his  work,  in  India  at  least,  is  permanent.^ 
In  Te  Domine  speravi,  non  confundar  in  ceternunir' 

should  be  observed  that  the  furtive  abstraction  of  relics  even  for 
the  sake  of  devotion  is  sacrilege.  Lucii  Ferrari,  Pronpta  Biblio- 
theca^  vii  ,  Veneratio  Sanctorum,  §  69. 

1  For  his  method  of  instruction  see  Epistola  Iiidica,  1570, 
pp.  1-17  :  for  his  extraordinary  Japanese  experiences  see  Epist. 
Japan. yi^^o,  his  own  letters  pp.  1-69. 

^  S.  Francis  died  December  2,  1552.  Miracles,  which  he  had 
always  denied  in  his  lifetime,  were  soon  found  after  his  death  ; 
they  were  like  his  life  itself  miracles  of  love  and  faith.  He  was 
canonized  on  March  22,   1622,  by  Gregory  XIII.     .\  very  useful 


86  The  English  Saints 

So  far  we  have  dealt  with  real  characters,  with 
historical  persons  whose  features  legend  may  have 
touched  but  has  not  obliterated.  Our  own  land  may 
for  the  moment  give  us  pause  as  she  seems  to  sum 
up  the  qualities  she  admires,  in  the  medieval  choice 
of  her  patron  Saint.  When  we  name  S.  George,  are 
we  not  at  once  in  the  midst  of  fable  ?  Gibbon,^  in 
a  famous  and  inimitable  passage,  tells  that  he  was  a 
Cappadocian  of  the  fourth  century  who  raised  himself 
from  obscure  and  servile  origin  by  the  talents  of  a 
parasite,  that  his  patrons  procured  for  him  a  contract 
to  supply  the  imperial  army  with  bacon,  that  "  his 
employment  was  mean  ;  he  rendered  it  infamous." 
He  "  saved  his  fortune  at  the  expense  of  his  honour," 
became  a  heretic  and  an  archbishop,  a  persecutor  who 
at  last  suffered  the  just  vengeance  of  the  people,  and 
then  by  a  strange  transformation  "  assumed  the  mask 
of  a  martyr,  a  saint  and  a  Christian  hero."  Thus,  he 
tells  us,  "  the  infamous  George  of  Cappadocia  has  been 
transformed  into  the  renowned  S.  George  of  England, 
the  patron  of  arms,  of  chivaliy,  and  of  the  Garter." 

That  is  one  picture  of  the  English  patron  Saint. 
The  other  is  that  which  we  know  from  the  medieval 

little  summary  of  his  life,  works,  and  cult  is  0  Devoto  de  S.  Francisco 
Xavier,  milagroso  Apostolo,  Defensor  c  Pat rono  das  Indias.  Nova 
Goa,  1878. 

1  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  47c  sqq.  Professor  Bury  shows  that  Gibbon's 
identification  is  unsound,  and  that  S.  George  really  existed  and 
was  a  martyr:  the  dragon-slaying  myth  was  attached  to  others 
also.  Professor  G.  S.  Stokes  marshalled  the  arguments  for  a  his- 
torical and  orthodox  S.  George  in  the  Dictionary  of  Christian  Bio- 
graphy. But  cf  J.  Friedrich  in  Sitzungsberichte  .  .  .  d.  k.  b.  A/cad. 
Miinchen,  1899  (ii ),  159-203. 


National  Saints  87 

legends  of  English  monks  and  Italian  artists.  He  was 
the  son  of  noble  Christian  parents,  and  he  was  a 
tribune  in  the  army  in  the  time  of  Diocletian.  Once 
on  his  way  to  join  his  legion  he  came  to  a  city  called 
Selene,  where  there  was  great  trouble  and  alarm  about 
a  dragon,  and  to  avert  its  ravages,  after  the  inhabitants 
had  exhausted  their  supply  of  sheep  as  its  bribe  for  not 
coming  too  near  the  city,  they  were  forced  to  offer  their 
children,  who  were  chosen  by  lot,  and  at  last  the  lot 
fell  upon  the  King's  daughter.  The  King  offered  all 
his  treasures,  and  half  his  kingdom,  to  redeem  her  ; 
but  he  was  reminded  of  his  own  edict  which  ordered 
the  sacrifice  chosen  by  lot.  So  the  princess,  clad  in 
splendid  robes,  went  forth  to  die.  Then  S.  George  met 
her  as  he  rode.  "  Fear  not,"  he  said,  "  I  will  deliver 
you."  "Noble  youth,"  she  answered,  "stay  not  here 
lest  you  too  perish  with  me ;  fly  I  beseech  you." 
But  that  would  he  not.  "  God  forbid  that  I  should 
fly !  I  will  lift  up  my  hand  against  this  loathsome 
thing,  and  will  deliver  thee  through  the  power  of  Jesus 
Christ."  So  he  charged  the  dragon,  and  pinned  him 
to  the  earth  with  his  lance  Then  the  princess  led  the 
monster  into  the  city  bound  with  her  girdle.  Still  the 
people  were  affrighted;  but  S.  George  bade  them  "fear 
nothing ;  only  believe  in  God  through  whose  might 
I  have  conquered  this  adversary,  and  be  baptized,  and 
I  will  destroy  him  before  your  eyes."  So  the  King 
and  twenty  thousand  were  baptized  in  one  day,  and 
S.    George   slew   the    dragon.^     Thus   our   fathers,    in 

^  I  have  told  the  tale,  by  his  kind  permission,  as  it  has  been 
retold  lately  by  the  Rev.  J.  L.  Fish,  Rector  of  S.  Margaret  Pattens, 
London.     Milman,  in  noticing  the  objections  to  Gibbon's  identifica- 


88        ■  The  English  Saints 

romance  picturesque  and  impossible,  thought  of  the 
Saint  who  had  slain  the  dragon  and  rescued  the  prin- 
cess, the  pattern  of  knighthood,  fearless  and  pure, 
whom  no  danger  and  no  reproach  could  touch,  stand- 
ing, as  he  stands  outside  Or  San  Michele  at  Florence 
in  the  sculpture  of  Donatello,  "  a  chivalrous  figure, 
breathing  cheerful  and  courageous  youth,"  or  as  in  that 
other  statue,  on  the  east  wall  of  the  church  where 
Shakespeare  lies  buried,  with  his  vizor  lifted,  stern, 
cold,  watchful,  ready  to  defend  the  right.-^  It  was  thus, 
no  doubt,  that  the  English  warriors  thought  they  saw 
him  when  they  fought  at  Antioch,^  and  overthrew  by 
his  aid  and  that  of  S.  Demetrius  of  Thessalonica,^  the 
hosts  of  infidels;  so  he  appeared  to  Richard  the  Lion- 
heart/     And  thus  he  passed,  by  the  order  of  a  council 

tion,  says  happily  that  "  it  is  much  more  easy  to  say  who  S.  George 
was  not  than  who  he  was."  Latin  Christianity^  ix.  Si,  note.  See 
the  letter  of  Ruskin  in  Fors  Clavigera^  vol.  iii.,  letter  26,  and  the 
description  of  Carpaccio's  picture  in  S.  Mark's  Nest. 

'  Among"  representations,  expressing  the  same  idea  of  chixalrous 
courage,  the  great  window  at  S.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  will  not 
be  forgotten.  There  is  also  a  fine  figure  in  a  window  in  Malvern 
Priory  Church.  For  a  list  see  Aixluvologia^  vol.  xlix.  (2),  pp  243- 
300. 

-  William  of  Malmesbury,  Gesia  RegiDii,  ed.  Stubbs,  ii.  420. 

^  S.  Demetrius,  whose  ico7i  is  still  among  the  most  popular  in 
the  East,  is  represented  like  S.  George  as  a  young  knight  on  horse- 
back. 

■*  In  the  Acid  Saiicforici/i,  April,  torn,  iii.,  p.  158,  §  117,  there 
occurs  this  :  "  Ita  tradlt  auctor  quidam  Ms.  qui  sub  Henrico  VIII. 
vixit,  scripsitque  commentarium  cui  hunc  titulum  indidit — Institutio 
clarissimi  Ordinis  militaris  a  pncnobili  subligaculo  nuncupati. 
Hie  auctor  declarat  Richardum  I.  in  bcllo  propositum  sacro  Ordinis 
instituendi  concepisse.  Nam  cum  in  Terra-sancta  obsidio  quasdam 
illi  in  longum  traheretur,  Tandem  (inquit  auctor  iste)  illabente  per 
Divi  Georgii,  ut  opinatum  est,  intcrventum   spiritu,  \enit  mcntcm 


National  Saints  89 

at  Oxford  in  1220,  into  the  English  kalendar,  as  a  saint 
whose  day  was  especially  to  be  observed,  and  by  com- 
mand of  Edward  III.  into  the  position  of  patron  of  the 
Order  of  the  Garter,  and  so  in  1349  of  England  itself.^ 

Which  story  —  and  these  are  far  from  being  the 
only  ones — is  the  most  guilty  of  obscuring  the  true 
S.  George  ?  It  is  a  question  which  might  be  pressed 
further.  It  is  sufficient  to  answer  that  the  George 
whom  Englishmen  made  their  patron  saint  had  the 
qualities  that  they  most  admired,  courage,  devotion, 
loyalty,  faith.  And  so  he  remains,  mythical,  legendary, 
quite  apart  from  true  history.  But  he  represents  an 
ideal  which  Englishmen  set  before  them,  in  which 
there  seemed  to  reach  down  to  them  the  virtues  of  the 
Divine  Christ,  as  they  would  have  been  seen  had  He 
lived  on  earth  in  their  time.  So  He  would  have  gone 
about  redressing  human  wrong  and  treading  underfoot, 
as  a  good  knight,  the  dragon  of  cruelty  and  sin. 

Parallel  to  that  of  S.  George  is  the  position  of 
S.  James.  Historical  person,  and  Apostle,  though  he 
was,  it  was  as  a  slayer  of  infidels,  a  warrior  saint,  that 
the  Son  of  Thunder  appealed  to  the  nation  and  was 
given,  and  retained,  the  patronage  of  Spain. 

So  we  end  our  sketches  of  national  saints.  Two  points 
seem  significant  in  conclusion.  First,  it  is  important  to 
remember  that  the  unity  of  the  saints  is  more  signifi- 
cant, more  lasting,  than  the  variety.     Nothing  is  vital 

ut  quorumdam  electorum  militum  cruribus  coriaceam  subfibulam, 
qualem  ad  manus  tunc  solum  habebat,  indueret ;  quo  futuras  gloriic 
memores,  etc." 

1  There  are  193  churches  dedicated  in  his  name.  See  Miss 
Arnold- P'orster's  Studies  hi  Church  Dedications,  \\.  464. 


90  The  English  Saints 

but  what  is  generally  diffused  among  the  national 
churches  that  unite  in  the  one  Holy  Catholic  Church. 
It  is  very  true  that  to  stifle  national,  even  local, 
feeling  in  the  Church  is  a  policy  disastrous  to  her  true 
interest.  "  A  religion  which  is  not  fed  by  home  and 
local  influences  is  always  morbid  and  usually  super- 
stitious ;  a  country  with  which  its  own  Church  does 
not  identify  itself  goes  its  own  way  very  much  without 
the  beneficial  influence  of  the  Church,  and  regards  it  as 
something  outside,  often  even  as  an  enemy.  A  time, 
we  may  hope,  will  come  when  it  will  be  found  possible 
for  a  Church  to  be  in  real  communion  without  losing 
its  proper  and  national  place  among  its  own  people."^ 
But  none  the  less  the  unity  is  far  more  important,  far 
more  significant,  than  the  variety.  If  this  strong  sense 
of  the  essential  unity  of  the  Church  is  preserved,  there 
must  fall  away  exaggeration,  excesses,  superstitions, 
which  belong  only  to  temporary,  local,  or  even  national 
interests.  No  part  of  the  Catholic  Church,  no  true 
"  particular  or  national  Church,"  may  lack  anj^thing 
which  is  vital.  It  is  of  course  true  that  the  life  of  the 
Catholic  Church  is  realized  in  the  life  of  the  particular 
church,  but  that  realization  would  be  impossible  if 
anything  were  omitted  which  the  general  usage  of 
the  whole  Church,  "dispersed  through  the  whole 
world,"  has  continued  to  retain  as  essential.  The 
"  tendency  to  vary "  has  its  dangers.  The  holiness 
of  the  individual  life,  or  of  the  national  ideal,  is  secure 
only  as  it  is  founded  on  the  one  eternal  type  which 
Christ  the  Son  of  Man  has  left  for  the  example  of 
mankind. 

^  Life  and  Letters  of  Dr.  Hort,  i.  465. 


National  Saints  91 

And,  secondly,  it  may  be  asked,  why  should  we  look 
for  our  typical  heroes  of  faith  in  the  Middle  Ages  ? 
Why  should  we  go  back  to  an  effete  ecclesiasticism,  to 
a  narrow  and  ignorant  view  of  the  universe  ?  The 
answer  will  best  be  given  in  the  words  of  a  great  bishop 
of  our  own  day,  who  thrilled  with  every  wave  of 
modern  feeling,  and  who  had  no  sympathy,  not  the 
slightest,  for  anything  strained,  or  unreal,  or  effete. 
Of  the  great  workers,  hermit,  monk  and  mendicant  of 
the  Middle  Age,  he  wrote  these  strong  words  :  "  They 
teach  us,  on  a  large  scale,  how  God  is  pleased  to  use 
the  devotion  of  sacrifice  for  the  education  of  the  world ; 
how  calculated  self-surrender  calls  out  a  response  greater 
than  all  hope  ;  how  social  evils  are  met  by  a  social 
organization."  And  "  They  bring  before  us  with  im- 
pressive force  the  efficacy  of  their  inspiring  principle. 
They  fulfilled  their  work  triumphantly.  They  vindi- 
cated great  thoughts  for  our  perpetual  possession. 
They  made  clear  by  successive  victories  the  reality 
of  the  spiritual,  the  foundation  of  freedom  in  obedience, 
the  hallowing  of  humanity  and  nature  in  the  poor  man, 
Christ  Jesus. "^ 

Such  indeed  are  the  lessons,  set  for  the  healing  of 
the  nations,  that  come  to  us  from  the  typical  lives  of 
national  saints.  Here  and  there  their  methods  are 
unsuited  to  our  day,  but  only  because  they  were  so 
perfectly  suited  to  their  own.  But  their  essential 
principle  is  an  abiding  possession,  and  it  contains, 
under  God,  all  promise  for  the  future  of  mankind. 
1  Westcott,  Words  of  Faith  and  Hope,  p.  55. 


LECTURE  III 

THE  SAINTS  OF  THE  ENGLISH  CONVERSION 

"  Remember  them  that  had  the  rule  over  you,  which  spake  unto 
you  the  word  of  God  ;  and  considering  the  issue  of  their  life, 
imitate  their  faith." — Hebrews  xiii.  7. 

It  should  be  possible  through  the  lives  of  the  saints 
most  revered  in  any  country  to  trace  in  some  detail  the 
influence  of  the  Christian  faith  upon  national  character. 
The  saints  whom  men  have  most  reverenced  have 
generally  been  those  whom,  with  whatever  shrinking 
and  failure,  they  have  been  most  eager  to  imitate.  The 
form  which  Christianity  has  taken  in  different  lands 
has  been  profoundly  influenced  by  the  special  character- 
istics of  the  first  preachers.  This  individual  force,  a 
fruitful  cause  of  heresy  and  schism,  has  also  been  a 
splendid  and  energizing  agency  in  the  conversion  of 
the  nations. 

It  is  an  influence  which  the  Bible  always  recognizes 
and  asserts.  No  appeal  of  S.  Paul's  is  more  familiar 
than  that  often  repeated  one  to  his  own  services  and 
his  own  sacrifices,  with  the  demand  on  his  converts  for 
imitation  :  "Be  ye  imitators  of  me,  and  mark  them 
which  so  walk  even  as  ye  have  us  for  an  ensample."-^ 
^  P/iilippians  iii.,  17 
[92] 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion     93 

And  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  urges 
the  disciples  of  the  New  Covenant  to  remember  those 
who  first  ruled  them  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  to 
imitate  the  spirit  of  their  lives,  and  if  need  be  the 
heroism  of  their  fate. 

In  the  making  of  English  Christianity  we  can  trace 
four  distinct  lines  of  influence,  each  represented  in 
a  special  type  of  character.  We  have  the  Gallican, 
the  memory  of  the  saints  who  had  won  Gaul  for  Christ ; 
the  Welsh,  as  men  came  to  call  it,  a  distinctly  foreign 
type,  widely  divergent  from  the  English  character ;  the 
Roman,  which  began  the  Christian  triumph  ;  the  Scoto- 
Irish,  which  nobly  laboured  in  the  conversion  of  the 
North.  These  in  turn  we  may  consider.  But  first  it 
may  be  asked,  was  there  not  an  earlier  influence  ? 
Did  the  first  Roman  occupation  bequeath  no  perma- 
nent memory  of  Christian  heroism  ?  It  was  natural  that 
the  English  when  they  were  converted  should  desire  to 
trace  back  the  Gesta  Dei  in  the  land  they  had  occupied 
to  an  earlier  day.  And  so  at  the  opening  of  the  fourth 
century  there  meets  us  "  the  grand  and  touching 
scene  "^  of  the  martyrdom  of  S.  Alban.  The  story 
certainly  had  grown  before  Bede  wrote  it  down,-  but  it 
shows  at  least  the  English  admiration  for  steadfast 
courage  in  confessing  Christ.      Alban,   as  men   spoke 

1  W.  Bright,  Early  English  Church  History,  p.  6. 

^  Bede,  Hist.  Eccl.,  i.  7.  It  is  certain  that  as  early  as  429  Alban 
was  revered  as  a  martyr,  and  S.  Germanus  visited  his  relics  at 
Verulamium.  This  was,  according  to  either  of  the  dates  assigned, 
less  than  150  years  after  the  martyrdom.  See  Plummer,  ii.  17  sqq.  : 
Haverfield,  E.  Hist.  Review,  ]\i\}j,  1 896,  on  Early  British  Christianity : 
Bishop  Stubbs  in  Diet.  Christian  Biography.  Zimmer's  scepticism 
{The  Celtic  Church  in  Britain  and  Ireland)  is  uncon\-incing. 


94  The  English  Saints 

of  him,  was  the  first  of  a  long  hne  of  heroes  who 
gave  up  their  hves  for  the  love  of  Christ.  The  later 
tales  give  him  for  teacher  one  Amphibalus,  of  whom  by 
the  I2th  century  elaborate  tales  are  told.  But  the  story 
of  Alban  at  the  first  is  simple  enough.  He  saved  a 
Christian  priest  by  whose  life  and  teaching  he  was  con- 
verted and  in  whose  stead  he  gave  himself  up  to  the 
Roman  governor.  He  refused  to  offer  sacrifice  "  to 
devils,"  and  was  beheaded.  Water  dried  up,  or  burst 
forth,  according  as  the  martyr  prayed,  and  the  miracles 
which  followed  him  made  persecution  cease.  In  the 
tenth  century  he  was  among  the  most  famous  of  the 
national  saints.^  So  "  among  the  roses  of  the  martyrs 
brightly  shines  out  Alban."  Thus  began  William  of 
Newburgh  in  the  twelfth  century  to  preach  on  the  saint 
whom  he  claimed  as  a  hero  for  English  and  Welsh  alike, 
white  from  the  remission  of  sins,  red  with  the  blood  of 
martyrdom.  Happy  Britain  if  she  could  always  pro- 
duce such  sons  I"  Thus  the  medieval  writers  found  in 
the  legend  of  the  first  British  martyr  an  argument  for 
union  between  the  races.  Normans  as  well  as  English 
were  ready  to  welcome  into  full  brotherhood  those  who 
had  given  so  notable  a  tribute  to  the  supremacy  of 
Christ.=^ 

But  the  story  of  Alban  is  hardly  to  be  reckoned 
among  the  earliest  influences  on  English  Christianity : 

1  See  his  name  in  the  Latin  and  A.  S.  Lives,  in  Liebeimann's 
Dz'e  Heiligen  England s^  PP-  9?  lO- 

■^  The  sermon  was  printed  by  Hearne  in  his  edition  of  WilHam  of 
Newburgh,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  874-902. 

^  Full  blown  lives  of  S.  Alban  and  S.  Amphibalus  (whose  name 
no  doubt  comes  from  no  better  source  than  the  cloak  of  All^an)  are 
given  in  the  Nova  Legenda. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion      95 

and  that  of  his  companion,  who  was  most  probably 
simply  his  cloak,  had  certainly  no  influence  at  all.^  It 
was  in  Gaul  that  the  lives  to  which  the  preachers  of 
Christ  to  the  English  first  appealed  for  ensample  had 
been  lived.  Some  who  spoke  of  them  had  seen  and 
known  them  :  of  their  work  there  was  a  continuous 
tradition  and  to  their  characters  a  continuous  popular 
reverence. 

Among  the  special  influences  of  holy  lives  which 
operated  upon  the  English  folk  from  the  moment  of 
their  conversion  perhaps  the  strongest  was  that  of 
S.  Martin  of  Tours.-  No  life  could  have  been  better 
fitted  to  impress  such  a  people.^     It  was  the  life  of  a 

1  On  J^.  Amphibahis  see  work  by  M.  J.  Loth,  1890  (r/".  Bulleihi 
des  publications  Hagiographiqiics  de  1890  in  Atialecta  Bollandimia^ 
X.  1891). 

^  For  traces  of  the  influence  see  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils^ 
vol.  I,  p.  14,  note  b.  The  number  of  churches  dedicated  to  him 
in  England  is  over  160.  See  Arnold-Forster,  CliurcJi  Dedications, 
i.  434,  etc. 

2  The  chief,  and  indeed  the  only  original,  authority  for  the  life 
of  S.  Martin  is  Sulpicius  Severus,  who  wrote  a  Life,  Letters,  and  a 
Dialogue,  all  concerned  with  the  life  and  fame  of  the  saint,  whom  he 
knew  intimately.  There  are  versified  lives  by  Venantius  Fortunatus 
and  Paulinus.  Of  Gregory  of  Tours  M.  Fustel  de  Coulanges  said 
very  happily  {la  Monarchic  franque,  p.  5)  "  il  dcrit  en  dveque."  He 
deals  with  facts  rather  than  manners,  and  he  deals  with  them  for 
edification.  But  he  was  a  scholar,  he  quoted  his  authorities,  he 
endeavoured  to  see  men  and  principles  clearly.  Thus  his  chapter 
on  S.  Martin  in  de  gloria  confessorwn,  cap.  4  sqq.,  his  de  miraculis 
S.  Martini  libri  qiiatvor,  and  the  short  account  in  his  historia 
Francorum  aW  have  a  distinct  value.  The  miracles  were  continuous 
to  his  time  :  as  he  dreamed  he  saw  the  multitude  at  the  Saint's 
tomb  and  the  Saint  himself  demanded  why  he  did  not  tell  the  tale 
of  the  wonders  that  were  new  e\ery  day.  (Migne,  Patr.  Lat., 
vol.  Ixxi.,  p.  91  r.  In  his  Liber  de  gloria  cnnfessoruiii  {ibid.,  p.  833) 
he  tells  this  talc  in  witness  to  the  holiness  of  S.  Martin  :  When  the 


g6  The  English  Saints 

soldier  who  set  Christ  first  in  his  heart,  before  all 
earthly  loyalties  :  of  a  hermit,  who  even  when  compelled 
to  enter  the  world  still  lived  as  an  ascetic  :^  of  a  priest, 
who  considered  the  dignity  of  the  priesthood  above  all 
earthly  rank  :-  of  a  bishop,  of  absolute  self-forgetfulness 
and  humility :"  of  a  missionary,  whose  victories  were 
among  the  greatest  that  the  world  has  ever  known. 
The  simple  story  that  fixed  itself  upon  the  imagination 
of  Christendom  was  typical  of  his  whole  life.  To  him 
the  beggar  was  ever  the  Christ,  suffering  in  His  members."* 
He  could  not  believe  it  possible  that  his  Lord  was  not 
still  crowned  with  thorns,  though  He  had,  once  for  all, 
died  on  Calvary  for  the  sins  of  men.'^ 

Saint  was  praying  before  the  tomb  of  S.  Gatien  he  cried  with  tears 
"  bless  me,  thou  man  of  God."  Then  a  voice  was  heard,  "  Te  etiam 
deprecor  benedices  mihi,  serve  Domini."  He  adds,  "  Admirabantur 
autem  qui  aderant  eo  tempore,  et  dicebant  Eum  habitare  tunc  in 
Martino,  Qui  quondam  Lazarum  vocavit  ex  monumento." 

There  are  a  number  of  later  lives  and  studies  of  much  interest  : 
three,  for  dififerent  reasons,  as  typical  of  different  kinds  of  interest, 
may  be  mentioned.  They  are  La  jnission  ei  Ic  cidte  de  S.  Marlin, 
IkiUiot  and  ThioUier,  Autun,  1892  :  Life  and  Letters  in  the  IV. 
Century,  G\ov&r,  1901.  On  Sulpicius  Severus,  a  French  translation 
of  the  Vita,  with  later  history  of  the  cult,  Viotand  Bourassd,  Tours, 
1893.     S^^  "^Iso  Bernoulli,  Die  Heiligen  der  Merozvinger,  1900. 

1  Sulpicius  Severus,  de  vita  S.  Martini,  c.  10,  and  c.  36. 

2  Cf.  ibid.,  cap.  20. 

^  Cf.  ibid.,  c.  25.  Faricius,  however,  the  biographer  of  S.  Aldhelm 
{0/>p.  .S.  A/d/i.,  ed.  Giles,  p.  369),  says  of  S.  Martin  after  he  became 
bishop,  "baud  postea  tantum  valuit  in  virtutibus  quantum  prius 
valebat."     His  authority  cannot  count  for  much. 

*  Sulpicius  Severus,  de  vita  S.  Martini,  ca}).  3,  when  he  tells 
how  he  divided  his  cloak  with  the  beggar  says  he  had  nothing  else 
to  give,  "jam  enim  reliqua  in  opus  simile  consumpserat." 

^  "  Ego  Christum  nisi  in  eo  habitu  formaqua  qua  passus  est,  nisi 
crucis  stigmata  prteferentem,  venisse  non  credam."     Ibid.,  c.  3. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion     97 

The  extraordinary  fascination  which  he  exercised 
over  men,  the  remarkable  success  of  his  great  mis- 
sionary journeys,  were  no  doubt  due  to  some  extent  to 
the  charm  of  his  presence,  that  atmosphere  of  heavenly 
calm  which  his  biographer  says  was  visible  in  his  face.^ 
Besides  this  irresistible  spiritual  attraction,  he  had  the 
power  that  belongs  to  a  true  man  who  is  a  man  of  the 
people  :  he  was  "  un  saint  un  peu  democratique.""-  He 
added  to  his  rigid  orthodoxy  a  true  charity.'^  These 
were  characteristics  which  men  remembered,  and 
preached  about.  Thus  he  was  held  up  as  an  example. 
And  when  the  English  came  to  worship  with  Augustine 
in  the  Roman  church  dedicated  in  his  name  at  Canter- 
bury it  was  this  character  that  they  joined  in  revering 
and  seeking  to  imitate.  But  above  his  personal  virtues, 
it  was  his  wonderful  success  as  a  missionary  that 
inspired  the  enthusiasm  of  English  Christians.  It  was 
as  the  relentless  foe  of  heathenism,  and  the  patient 
preacher  to  the  pagans,  that  he  was  remembered  and 
venerated.  Everywhere  he  destroyed  temples  :^  here 
at  least  he  was  contrasted  with  S.  Augustine  whom 
S.  Gregory  told  to    preserve    and  purify  them.     The 

^  "Nemo  unquam  ilium  vidit  iratum,  nemo  commotum,  nemo 
niiurentum,  nemo  ridentem  :  unus  idemque  fuit  semper,  cielestem 
quodammodo  la^titiam  vultu  pntferens,  extra  naturam  hominis 
videbatur.  Nunquam  in  illius  ore  nisi  Christus,  nunquam  in  illius 
corde  nisi  pietas,  nisi  pax,  nisi  misericordia  inerat."  Sulpicius 
Severus,  Vtia,  c.  27. 

"  So  M.  Boissier,  quoted  by  Mr.  Glover,  Life  and  Letters  in  the 
Fourth  Century^  p.  282.  I  hardly  think  the  likeness  to  S.  Francis 
is  so  close  as  Mr.  Glover  considers  it. 

^  Sulpicius  Severus,  Chron.,  ii.  50  ;  cf.  Dialogues,  iii.  c.  11-13. 

^  Sulpicius  Severus,  Vita^  c.  13.  Cf.  A.  Bertrand,  La  religion 
dcs  Gaulois. 


gS  The  English  Saints 

popular  enthusiasm  which  burst  out  at  his  death,  and 
made  holy  the  very  oil  used  for  lighting  the  lamps  at 
his  tomb,  preserved  in  popular  legend  the  course  of  his 
missionary  tours.  While  the  memorials  of  him  were 
chiefly  in  stone,  remarkable  for  those  days,  the  tradi- 
tional remembrance  of  him  in  preaching,  miracle, 
destruction  of  sacred  trees  and  fanes,  stamped  itself 
in  spots  which  legend  identified  with  some  particular 
action  of  his  life.  The  people  preserved  his  memory 
in  Gaul  even  more  than  the  classic  literature  that  told 
his  fame.^  It  was  so  in  England.  He  came  to  rank  as 
it  were  among  the  national  saints. 

Another,  though  it  would  appear  that  his  fame  in 
England  was  later,  must  be  mentioned  beside  him. 

S.  Giles,  the  hermit,  the  abbat  around  whose 
monastery  rose,  on  an  arm  of  the  Rhone,  the  town 
which  gave  a  title  to  the  great  house  of  Toulouse,  and 
whose  devotion  spread  in  the  nth  and  12th  centuries 
over  all  Europe,  might  have  been,  like  S.  Martin,  among 
the  early  influences  upon  the  Christianity  of  our  land. 
But  Bede  does  not  mention  him  :  and  it  is  probable 
that  he  was  unknown  till  commerce  and  the  Crusades 
and  the  interests  of  the  Angevin  Kings  brought  English- 
men to  know  his  fame  in  Southern  Gaul.  When  he 
came  to  be  venerated  in  England  it  was  as  patron  of 
cripples,  as  the  saint  of  hospitals ;  and  so  outside  the 
walls,   where  sick  folk  were   hurried  out   of  sight,-  if 

1  "  II  s'est  formd  autour  du  nom  de  Saint  Martin,  en  dehors  des 
litterateurs,  une  seconde  epopee,  exclusivement  populaire,  brodde 
comme  le  pocme  de  conceptions  fantastiques,  dc  lt5gendes  qui 
ddpassent  cclles  dc  Cesar  et  de  Charlemagne."  Bulliot  and 
Thiollier,  La  mission  ct  le  culie  dc  S.  Martin,  p.  6. 

-  This  seems  the  most  natural  explanation  of  what  has  caused 
much  dispute. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion     gg 

any  care  was  taken  of  them  at  all,  his  churches  were 
built. 

A  hermit  in  the  valley  of  the  Rhone  who  died 
towards  the  close  of  the  seventh  century,  his  very 
existence  trembles  on  the  verge  of  historic  proof:  his 
identification  is  beset  with  difficulties  almost  insoluble.^ 
But  the  character  that  men  gave  of  him,  when  his  cult 
was  popular,  is  in  no  doubt.  He  was  one  who  loved 
solitude,  and  protected  the  beasts  of  the  forest.  A 
wounded  hind  pursued  by  the  king's  hounds  fled  to 
him  for  refuge,  and  when  the  king  saw  it  lying  by  the 
saint's  side  as  he  knelt  at  prayer,  he  spared  it  and 
passed  on  his  way  honouring  the  man  to  whom  God 
had  given  the  trust  of  His  creatures.  In  the  details  of 
his  life  the  hagiologists  borrowed  from  S.  Martin  :  but 
still  a  characteristic  impression  was  left,  and  it  was  to 
this  that  England  dedicated  her  philanthropy  and  her 
medical  science  for  many  generations.- 

1  But  see  the  discovery  of  his  tomb  at  Nimes,  Memoires  de 
PAcadeinie  du  Card  1867,  pp.  xoS  sqq.  Much  the  best  account  of 
the  difficuUies,  and  the  most  satisfactory  historical  identification,  is 
found  in  the  preface,  by  MM.  Gaston  Paris  and  Alphonse  Bos,  to 
their  edition  of  the  poetic  Vie  de  S.  Gilles  (1881). 

-  The  Hfe  in  the  BoUandist  Acta  SS.^  Sept.,  i.  289,  is  of  not  earlier 
date  than  the  end  of  the  9th  century.  An  interesting  metrical  life 
by  Guillaume  de  Berneville  (12th  century)  was  edited  by  MM.  Paris 
and  Bos  in  1881.  Their  introduction  is  of  great  value.  They  thus 
sum  up  the  historical  evidence  as  to  the  saint's  life.  "  /Egidius, 
sans  doute  Provencal  et  non  Grec,  obtint  en  673  de  Wamba  la  con- 
cession de  la  vallee  Flavienne  pour  y  batir  un  monastere  ;  il  offrit 
ce  monastere  au  siege  apostoliciue  en  685,  et  re9ut  en  echange  un 
privilegium  du  pape  Benoit  II.  ;  il  etait  mort  avant  719,  epoque 
oil  les  musulmans  envahirent  la  Septinianie.  Telles  sont  les  seules 
donnees  historiques  que  nous  possedions  sur  ce  personage  :  tout  ce 
qui  les  depasse  dans  sa  vie  latine  appartient  au  domaine  de  la  fiction." 

7—2 


100  The  English  Saints 

The  influence  of  Giles  and  Martin  was  charac- 
teristically Galilean,  and  it  was  strong  and  impressive. 
Most  nobly  did  the  English  revere  the  saint  who  was 
soldier  and  missionary.  In  him  there  was  always 
before  them  the  example  of  a  stern  simplicity,  an 
absolute  truthfulness,  an  absorbing  missionary  zeal. 

The  influence  of  the  Celtic  saints  was  different. 
S.  Martin,  though  the  Pictish  S.  Ninian  was  his 
disciple,  and  though  the  two  earhest  church  dedica- 
tions in  Britain  of  which  we  have  record  are  in  his 
name,  stood  apart  from  the  life  of  the  Celtic  Church. 
On  it  he  had  no  direct  influence.^  The  Celtic  saints  of 
whom  the  conquerors  of  England  came  to  know  were 
men  of  a  different  stamp. 

Among  them,  quite  apart  from  those  who  directly 
assisted  in  the  evangehzation  of  England,  we  must  dis- 
tinguish two  classes — S.  Patrick  with  the  saints  of 
Ireland,  and  the  saints  of  Cornwall  and  Wales. 

S.  Patrick  may  be  very  briefly  dismissed  in  regard  to 
his  direct  influence  on  England,  even  by  those  who  do 
not  doubt  his  existence.^     The  stricter  monastic  rules 

^  See  Willis  Bund,  The  Celtic  Church  in  Wales^  pp.  147  sqq. 

2  See  Plunimer,  Bade  ii.,  25,  26,  but  cf.  ii.  346.  Whitley  Stokes, 
Tripartite  Life  of  S.  Patrick,  1887,  is  of  course  the  main  storehouse 
of  knowledge,  and  cf.  notably  Professor  Bury's  very  careful  and 
convincing  article  on  the  value  of  Tirechan's  Memoir  of  S.  Patrick, 
in  Engl.  Hist.  Rev'.,  April  1902,  with  a  further  note  October  1902. 
With  Professor  Bury's  argument  that  it  is  not  likely  that  the  de- 
scription of  Patrick's  route  is  accurate  may  be  compared  the  view 
of  MM.  BuUiot  and  ThioUier  as  to  S.  Martin's  missionary  journeys 
in  the  pays  Eduen.  M.  A.  Bertrand  in  his  suggestive  book  La 
Relij^ion  des  Gaulois,  pp.  417  sqq.,  thinks  the  mission  of  S.  Patrick 
legendary,  and  that  there  was  no  need  of  martyrs  in  Scotland  or 
Irela.nd  He  thinks  that  Eastern  missionaries  came  to  Scodand 
and    licland,    and   found    the   druid    communities   as    centres   of 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    ioi 

of  the  two  Finnians  and  Columba^  far  more  exactly 
represented  the  monastic  ideal  as  it  affected  the 
English.  His  work  was  at  the  most  not  a  great  success. 
He  was  a  great  missionary,  and  his  name  was  rightly 
cherished  by  those  who  succeeded  to  and  accom- 
plished his  mission.  But  there  is  a  complete  contrast 
between  his  shadowy  claim  and  the  certain  facts  about 
S.  Martin.  Nor  can  much  be  said  for  the  possible  in- 
fluence of  the  writings  attributed  to  him.-  They  present 
a  type  of  simple  holiness,  passionately  devoted,  with  all 
the  Celtic  enthusiasm,  to  the  love  of  God  and  the  fear 
of  God,  and  are  notably  non-miraculous.  His  char- 
acter, as  the  biographers  depicted  it,  was  one  that  was 
fitly  reproduced  in  its  chief  points  in  that  of  S  Columba. 
It  is  through  the  saint  of  lona  alone  that  we  can  trace 
the  influence  of  the  Apostle  of  Ireland.^    Nor  can  much 


preaching,  that  these  depended  on  the  chiefs  of  the  clan,  and  that 
when  these  were  converted  the  communities  became  Christian  and 
the  customs  were  preserved  practically  unaltered.  He  traces  the 
history  of  the  Culdees.  Compare  with  this  the  view  of  Mr.  Willis 
Bund  in  The  Celtic  Church  in  JVales.  What  was  the  effect  of  these 
Celtic  communities  reorganized  as  Christian?  Giraldus  Camb. 
(//.  Cambr.,  ii.  4:  vol.  vi.,  p.  120)  declares  that  the  great  monastic 
fraternities  in  Wales  were  the  pest  of  the  Church  "  per  Hiberniam 
et  Walliam."  See  also  on  the  whole  question  Zimmer,  The  Celtic 
Church  in  Britain  and  Ireland  (English  translation  1902). 

'  See  Professor  Bury,  E.  H.  R.  as  above,  p.  253. 

-  On  these  see  the  very  interesting  introduction  of  Dr.  C.  H.  H. 
Wright  to  his  revised  translation  {Christian  Classics  Soics,  un- 
dated). 

'  It  is  noteworthy  that  of  the  few  dedications  of  English  churches 
to  S.  Patrick  some  are  perhaps  mistaken  and  two  are  quite  recent. 
The  Church  of  Nuttall,  Notts,  is  dedicated  to  him,  a  solitary  example 
in  the  Midlands.  See,  and  on  S.  Bridget  also,  Miss  Arnold- 
Forster's  Studies  in  Church  Dedications,  chapters  29  and  30. 


102  The  English  Saints 

have  been  kno^^■n  in  England  of  S.  Brendan,  whose 
soul  S.  Columba  saw  borne  to  heaven  by  angels.^ 
S.  Bridget,  "the  Mary  of  Ireland,"  the  type  of  pure 
and  impulsive  Celtic  womanhood,  had  more  influence, 
if  we  may  judge  from  church  dedications."^ 

When  we  come  to  the  saints  of  Wales  and  Cornwall 
we  are  met  at  once  by  what  seems  decisive  evidence  of 
the  exclusion  of  all  influence  from  them  on  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  early  English. 

We  have  first  the  famous  refusal  of  the  British 
bishops  to  help  Augustine  in  the  conversion  of  the 
English,^  with  its  consequence  in  the  undoubted  fact 
that  "  not  one  Cumbrian,  Welsh,  or  Cornish  missionary 
to  an}'  non-Celtic  nation  is  mentioned  anywhere."'* 
And  secondly  we  have  the  statement  of  Aldhelm,  four 
centuries  later,  that  even  then  the  priests  of  the 
Brythons  beyond  Severn  would  join  in  no  religious 
or  social  act  with  the  English,  would  cast  any  food  of 
theirs  to  the  dogs,  and  cleanse  the  cups  they  had  drunk 
from  with  sand  or  ashes,  and  would  refuse  all  kindly 
greetings  and  the  kiss  of  pious  brotherhood.'' 

But  it  is  impossible  that  the  great  institutions  of 
Celtic  Christianity  should  have  been  altogether  without 
indirect  influence  on  the  Teutonic  conquerors,  who  as 
time   went   on   became   more  and    more  closely   inter- 

^  Adamnan,  Vila  Co/i/iiilxr,  iii.  ii. 

"  There  are  interesting-  nioclern  testimonies  to  S.  Bride  in 
Fronde's  .S7/fv7  Studies,  i.  572,  573,  to  S.  Bix'ndan  in  KinL;sle\'s  TIic 
Heriiiits,  257-277. 

■■  Bede,  Hist.  EccL,  ii.  2. 

^  Haddan  and  Stubl)s,  Coi/z/ri/s,  i.  154. 

■'  Letter  written  by  S.  Aldhelm  to  the  Cornisli  King  Geran,  in 
Haddan  and  Stubbs,  iii.  271. 


mixed  with  the  conquered.  It  has  been  argued  that 
the  monastic  organization  of  these  lands  looked  back 
to  a  dim  past  unknown  to  history,  and  that  through  the 
druids  we  are  taken  behind  the  corporation  of  Gaulish 
or  Celtic  priests  mentioned  by  Caesar,  Diodorus,  and 
Strabo,  to  an  ancient  and  very  widespread  social  in- 
stitution. Of  this  the  abbeys  were  the  heritors.  The 
Church  adopted  in  her  monastic  houses  the  druid 
organization.  The  Irish,  Scots,  and  Gallic  abbeys  were 
"  heritieres  des  communautes  druidiques  de  ces 
contrees."^  Institutions  which  had  endured  so  long 
could  not  have  been  without  effect,  through  their 
system,  through  the  lives  they  had  trained,  even  on  a 
people  alien  in  race  and  in  almost  every  custom. 

But  there  is  scanty  evidence  indeed  :  and  in  the 
matter  of  influence  it  might  seem  that  the  Celtic 
customs  acted  by  contraries.  It  is  generally  considered 
that  the  early  Welsh  lives  underwent  complete  revision 
under  the  influence  of  English  or  foreign  clergy,  and 
that  thus  their  evidence  must  be  received  with  suspicion. 
It  is  asserted  with  vehemence  that  the  Welsh  sanctity 
was  hereditary  and  professional,  quite  apart  from  moral 
qualities.^     Without  accepting  this  view  in  its  extreme 

^  See  Reh'i^ion  des  Gaulois,  Annexe  i. 

'^  Among-  the  authorities  for  the  Hves  and  legends  of  the  Welsh 
Saints,  and  the  criticisms  of  them,  should  be  cited — W.  J.  Rees, 
Lives  of  the  Cambro-British  Saints,  from  Ancient  Welsh  and 
Latin  MSB.,  1853  :  Liber  Landavensis^  edited  by  the  same  writer, 
1840:  Rice  Rees,  ^72  Essay  on  the  Welsh  Saints,  1836:  Whitley 
Stokes,  Aftecdota  Oxoniensia,  part  v.,  lives  of  Saints  from  the  book 
of  Whitmore  :  Whitley  Stokes,  on  the  Calendar  of  Oengus,  Trans- 
actions of  Royal  Lrish  Academy,  Irish  MSS.  Series,  vol.  i.,  1880  : 
John  Donavan,  Banquet  of  Dun  na-a-gedh,  etc.,  1842  :  Zimmer, 
Celtic  Church  in  Britain  and  Lrelatid :   Taliesin  Williams,  Lolo 


104  The  English  Saints 

form,  we  may  at  least  admit  that  during  the  period  of 
the  conversion  few  Welsh  saints  were  recognized  b}' 
the  English,  and  that  the  influence,  such  as  it  was, 
acted  not  through  individuals  but  through  communities. 
The  saint  was  really  the  head  of  the  ecclesiastical 
settlement.  Organization  at  least  was  strongly  de- 
\'eloped.^  S.  Padarn,  who  went  with  S.  David  and 
S.  Teilo  to  Jerusalem,  had  847  monks  :-  and  the  power 
of  the  Celtic  Church  lay  in  its  adaptation  of  the  tribal 
system. 

When  we  come  to  individuals  and  analyse  the  lives, 
written  originally  in  Latin  and  then  translated  into 
Welsh,  which  come  to  us  in  their  present  form  from 
the  nth  or  12th  century,  to  find  the  element  of  original 
fact  or  legend  which  remains,  we  are  struck  by  some 
conspicuous  points.  The  Welsh  called  many  saints  to 
whom  the  Latin  Church  would  not  allow  the  name  :^ 
and  when  the  list  is  sifted  and  the  lives  of  a  selected 


J/.T.S'.,  Welsh  MSS.  Society,  1848:  S.  Baring-Could,  Address  on 
T//e  Celtic  Saints^  1899,  reprinted  from  the  Jmtrjial  of  the  Royal 
Institution  of  Cornwall ;  and  A  Catalogue  of  Saints  connected  witJi 
Comrmdl,  reprinted  from  the  same :  W.  C.  Borlase,  The  Age  of  the 
Saints,  1893  :  Willis  Bund,  The  Celtic  Church  of  Urates.  1897  :  E.  J. 
Newell,^  History  of  the  Welsh  Church,  1895.  A  very  good  sketch 
of  further  materials  is  found  in  Mr.  Borlase's  book  above  mentioned. 
He  states  that  "no  other  country  whose  population  spoke  the 
Celtic  language  is  so  devoid  of  materials  from  which  to  reconstruct 
her  hagiology  as  Cornwall." 

1  To  the  saints  of  the  line  of  Cunedda  (S.  David,  etc.)  organi- 
zation of  the  Church  in  Wales  is  due,  including  the  sees  of  Menevia, 
S.  Asaph  and  Bangor.     Rhys,  Celtic  Britain,  p.  245. 

^  See  his  life  in  W.  J.  Rees'  Lives  of  Canibro- British  Saints. 

'•'  Mr.  Willis  Bund  apth'  quotes  the  Bollandists,  Acta  SS., 
March  13,  II.  293. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    105 

few  are  examined  the  standard  of  sanctity  is  still  low. 
The  idea  that  saintship  meant  consecration,  holiness, 
is  even  in  the  Latin  recension  of  the  lives  very  im- 
perfectly apprehended.^  To  the  English  writers  of  the 
latter  Middle  Ages  it  may  well  have  seemed  that  to 
speak  of  a  Celtic  saint  was  to  use  a  contradiction  in 
terms.  But  two  significant  facts  emerge  from  the  mass 
of  legend.  The  Welsh  saints  had  to  fight  a  desperate 
battle  for  purity.  The  real  struggle,  for  the  Celts,  was 
against  sensual  sin.  The  whole  world  around  them 
seemed  to  be  lying  in  wickedness.  Even  when  the 
English  were  at  the  gates  the  Brythons  could  not  stand 
up  against  them  by  reason  of  their  crimes.-  The  Age 
of  Saints,  as  the  Welsh  writers  call  it,  was  indubitably 
an  age  of  sinners.-^ 

It  is  a  time  too  of  mystery  and  gloom,  a  time  when 
the  Brythons  were  fighting  inch  by  inch  for  their  lands 
and   their   lives.      The    rhetoric   of  Gildas    is    not  all 

1  Mr.  Willis  Bund  puts  the  case  a  little  confusedly  when  he  says 
"  One  result  of  being  a  saint  by  succession,  or  otherwise  than  from 
personal  merit,  was  to  render  it  unnecessary  for  the  Celtic  saint  to 
do  anything  to  maintain  his  saintly  reputation."  The  fallacy  of 
ambiguous  terms  however  only  disguises  something  which  is  really 
true,  the  imperfection  of  the  Celtic  standard.  Mr.  Rees  in  the 
preface  to  his  Canibro-British  Saints  spoke  of  the  lives  he  liad 
collected  as  "legendary  biographical  accounts  of  several  persons, 
who  in  the  early  age  of  the  ancient  British  Church,  obtained  great 
eminence  and  distinction  in  Wales:  and  were  called  Saints  on 
account  of  their  withdrawing  themselves  from  secular  concerns, 
and  devoting  their  time  and  attention  to  religious  matters,  and 
particularly  to  the  building  of  churches  and  the  founding  of 
religious  institutions." 

-  See  Gildas,  Episfola,  in  Moniiiiumta  Historica  Britamiiir, 
p.  16. 

2  Mr.  Newell  has  an  admirable  chapter  on  the  subject  in  his 
History  of  the  Welsh  Church. 


io6  The  English  Saints 

rhetorical  :  the  Hves  of  the  saints,  late  and  legendary 
though  they  are,  support  the  picture.  Like  light  in 
the  darkness  came  the  legends  of  later  days,  speaking 
of  the  first  organization  of  monks,  who  should  labour 
with  their  hands,  and  when  their  labour  in  the  fields 
was  done  must  turn  to  read  and  write  and  pray.  No 
vain  speech  must  there  be,  no  dainty  eating,  no  wearing 
of  fine  clothes,  or  sleeping  after  cock-crow.  Such  rules, 
and  behind  them  all  a  life  of  praise.  Was  it  a  tradition 
that  lingered  on  when  men  wrote  the  life  of  the  great 
Welsh  saints  ?  It  is  a  life  of  labour  that  they  describe^ 
as  well  as  a  life  of  prayer.  And  the  labour  as  well  as 
the  prayer  were  set  to  stern  practical  ends.  Men 
must  fight  for  God  indeed  in  those  days  of  savagery 
and  lust.  The  biographers  looked  back  and  saw  that 
the  struggle  was  over,  and  so  the  age  seemed  to  them 
an  Age  of  Saints.  Gradually  as  men  looked  back  into 
it  great  figures  seemed  to  emerge  from  the  darkness. 

David  it  appears  had  no  special  vogue  among  the 
saints  till  he  was  canonized  by  Pope  Calixtus  II.  in 
1 1 20.-  It  was  part  of  the  absorption  of  the  Welsh  b\' 
the  Catholic  Church.  Till  that  time  he  remained  a 
local  saint :  and  we  are  assured  that  in  his  case  as  in 
that  of  Celtic  hagiology  in  general  "  piety  had  nothing 
to  do  with  saints."  What  little  is  known  of  his  life 
may  be  briefl}'  summarized.  The  date  of  his  death, 
6oi,  has  some  claim  to  be  fact.  There  need  be  no 
doubt  that    lie   was   bishop   of  Menevia,  little  that   he 

^  E.g.  lives  of  S.  Cadoc,  S.  David,  S.  llltyd,  etc.,  in  Rees'  Ctuiibro- 
Britisk  Satnts. 

-  It  appears  tliat  lie  onl)',  and  possibly  Caradoc  (ob.  1124)  have 
l)een  canonized  by  the  Popes. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    107 

presided  over  two  British  synods. '  We  may  believe 
him  to  have  wandered  over  Wales,  preaching  the 
Gospel,  to  have  founded  monasteries  and  inculcated 
a  life  of  strenuous  toil.  His  biographer  Rhygyfarch 
collects  legends ;  but  there  is  a  basis  of  fact  behind 
them  which  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  and  Gerald  de 
Barri  lack.  Whatever  may  be  true  of  him,  his 
fame  certainly  was  of  slow  growth.  Not  a  single 
church  or  chapel  is  dedicated  to  him  in  all  North 
Wales.-  Dedications  indeed  among  the  Celts  afford 
evidence  of  a  peculiar  and  important  kind.  They 
emphasize  the  local  character  of  Celtic  sanctity. 
Formal  dedication  in  the  later  and  strict  sense  was 
not  the  practice  in  Wales.''  It  was  the  custom  rather 
for  the  churches  to  be  named  after  the  founder,  the 
holy  man  who  first  built  it  and  hallowed  it  by  his 
prayers.  The  sanctity  of  the  founder,  and  his  dis- 
tinction as  patron,  were  combined  in  the  reverence  of 

1  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils,  i.  117-118.  It  is  a  X-century 
MS.  of  the  Annales  Cambria^  which  names  him  as  bishop  of  Moni 
Judaoruni. 

-  Rice  Rees,  Welsh  Saints^  p.  45.  He  gives  a  hst  of  42  churches 
in  the  diocese  of  S.  David's,  8  in  Llandafif,  3  in  Hereford.  His 
name  however  ranks,  in  number  of  dedications,  only  after  S.  Alary 
and  S.  Michael.  The  dedications  to  S.  Michael,  so  common  in  all 
mountainous  districts  ("  to  celebrate  the  victory  of  the  Celtic  monks 
over  the  powers  of  darkness"  says  Mr.  Willis  Bund,  p.  331 — an 
explanation  which  explains  nothing)  are  the  more  ancient.  But  the 
history  of  the  Welsh  and  Cornish  dedications  is  most  interesting. 

■•  Rice  Rees,  Welsh  Saints,  pp.  69,  70.  "  In  other  countries 
where  the  Roman  Church  has  prevailed,  many  persons  who  were 
never  canonized  have  been  allowed  the  honour  of  sanctity  in  their 
immediate  neighbourhood,  and  in  this  local  character  the  saints  of 
Wales  must  be  considered."  Much  of  the  text  of  these  pages  of 
Mr.  Rees  is  absorbed  by  Mr.  Willis  Bund  in  his  book. 


io8  The  English  Saints 

later  ages  ^  In  Cornwall  conspicuously,  as  local  anti- 
quaries seem  conclusively  to  have  proved,  the  saints 
were  really  the  founders  of  the  places  and  the  churches 
which  bear  their  names.  The  names  that  were  honoured 
in  Cornwall  so  far  back  as  we  can  trace  have  a  great 
histor}'  behind  them,  and  they  connect  the  church  with 
the  Celts  of  other  lands. ^  So  dimly  we  seem  to  see 
into  this  strange  past,  when  Christian  morals  were 
slowly  fighting  their  way,  through  Christian  organiza- 
tion and  Christian  lives,  against  the  strong  influence  of 
tribal  custom.  At  first,  and  conspicuously  during  this 
dark  time,  "  saintship  among  the  Celts  was  a  profession, 
a  saint — naanh — was  the  head  of  the  ecclesiastical  settle- 
ment, quite  irrespective  of  his  moral  character.  Thus 
Peirio,  abbat,  who  tumbled  into  a  u'ell  when  drunk  and 
died  of  the  consequences,  was  a  saint :  so  was  Cairnech, 
although  he  instigated  a  man  to  murder  his  own  (Cair- 
nech's)  brother,  and  blessed  him  for  the  deed.'"" 

1  This  is  probably  a  more  correct  way  of  describing  what  hap- 
pened than  that  which  Mr.  Borlase,  The  Age  of  the  Saints,  seems 
to  accept  from  Rees,  pp.  57,  61. 

'-'  "The  history  of  the  early  Church  in  Cornwall  is  very  obscure. 
Considerations  of  race,  of  geographical  relations  and  historical 
probability,  would  lead  us  to  connect  it  with  Ireland,  Brittany,  and 
Wales ;  and  such  is  the  general  inference  from  the  legends  of  the 
Saints  of  the  four  regions  :  Irish  hermits  found  homes  in  Cornwall ; 
the  sons  of  Cornish  princes  appear  among  the  Breton  Saints  ;  a 
Cornish  King  becomes  a  monk  at  S.  David's  ;  and  in  some  cases 
the  dedications  of  churches  point  to  a  common  early  history." 
(Bishop  Stubbs,  in  Truro  Diocesan  Kalendar.)  See  also  a  most 
valuable  and  admirable  (unsigned)  paper  on  the  Celtic  Kalendar 
in  the  same  Diocesan  Kalendar  tracing  the  history  of  the  Cornish 
dedications  and  tabulating  the  parochial  feasts. 

•^  Baring-Gould  on  TJie  Celtic  Saints  (Royal  Institution  c^  Corn 
ioall\  p.  35. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    109 

To  alter  all  this  was  the  first  and  greatest  task  before 
the  Church — to  make  sanctity  mean  consecration.  The 
lives,  legendary  and  traditional,  afford  the  fullest 
evidence  of  this.  The  iteration  with  which  the  Chris- 
tian law  is  held  up  is  an  impressive  witness  of  the 
cost  at  which  the  Christian  character  was  won  among 
the  Celts.  And  then  a  second  fact  is  conspicuous. 
It  is  that  the  strength  of  x'ictory  came  to  the  Welsh 
from  a  passionate  attachment  to  dogmatic  religion. 
They  did  not  learn  to  be  moral  through  morality  but 
through  doctrine.  The  power  of  Christ's  character 
came  to  them  through  the  truth  of  His  Person.  The 
Celt  "saturated  himself  with  the  doctrinal  questions  of 
the  rehgion  "  he  "  had  adopted."^ 

The  Age  then  may  be  summed  up  as  one  of  moral 
and  dogmatic  teaching  given  under  the  greatest  diffi- 
culties. The  pettiest'-^  and  the  greatest  hindrances  seem 
united  against  the  Truth. 

^  Borlase,  The  Age  of  the  Sahiis,  p.  ^o. 

'  A  characteristic  story  is  the  following  :  "  One  day  fifty  British 
bishops  crossed  over  from  Wales  to  visit  the  disciple  of  S.  David. 
[S.  Acdan,  or  Hugh.]  They  arrived  in  Lent,  and  were  taken  into  the 
guest  house,  thoroughly  exhausted  by  their  journey.  To  them 
were  brought  fifty  bannocks  with  leeks  and  whey  for  their  dinner. 
But  this  did  not  please  them,  they  demanded  meat, — pork  or  beef. 
The  steward  reported  the  matter  to  Aedan.  'Can  this  be  pci- 
mitted  in  Lent  ?'  he  inquired  dubiously.  '  Of  course  they  shall  hvae 
it,'  answered  the  bishop.  So  they  were  supplied  with  butchers' 
meat.  Presently,  before  they  departed,  these  bishops  deemed  it 
expedient  to  apologise  and  explain  :  '  You  see,'  said  they,  '  that 
bullock  you  killed  for  us  had  been  suckled  on  milk,  and  ate  grass 
only,  so  that  it  was  actually  milk  and  vegetables  in  a  condensed 
form.  But  we  felt  conscientious  scruples  about  those  biscuits,  for 
they  were  full  of  weevils.' "  Baring-Gould,  Cornish  Dedications 
(R.LC),  p.  197. 


no  The  English  Saints 

These  facts,  indirectly,  had  no  doubt  their  influence 
on  the  English  people.  But  on  the  English  character 
there  were  stronger  forces  acting  from  the  hrst  days  of 
the  conversion.^ 

And  first  of  these  must  have  been  that  of  Augustine 
himself.     The  Apostle  of  the  English  has  been  thought 

1  On  the  effect  of  English  sanctity  on  the  Celts  an  interesting 
parallel  statement  might  be  drawn  up.  For  example  The  Marlyr- 
ology  of  Gorma7i  (edited  by  Whitley  Stokes,  Henry  Bradshaw 
Society,  1895),  written  somewhere  between  1166  and  1174,  a  poetic 
record  of  the  saints  whom  the  Irish  Church  (or  only  the  province 
of  Armagh,  as  may  be  perhaps  inferred  from  Dr.  Stokes's  preface, 
p.  xix.)  at  the  time  of  the  English  Conquest  commemorated,  is  in- 
teresting in  the  number  of  English  saints  whom  it  includes.  It  is 
curious  that  there  were  comparatively  few  saints  of  Wales  or  of 
Brittany  with  whom  this  compiler  was  acquainted.  Of  these  not 
more  than  five  lived  in  Britain  :  three  out  of  the  whole  list  of  twenty 
survive  in  our  present  Kalendar.  But  while  Ireland  in  the  twelfth 
century  recognized  like  England  her  indebtedness  to  S.  Alban, 
S.  David  and  S.  Martin  of  Tours,  she  welcomed  into  her  martyrology 
a  far  larger  number  of  purely  English  than  of  Celtic  Saints.  Fifty 
Anglo  Saints  were  then  commemorated  in  Ireland.  (But,  as  in  the 
other  list,  the  names  are  probably  often  repeated.)  Of  these  it  has 
been  shown  that  several  are  especially  connected  with  Winchester 
and  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  connection  of  S.  Swithun's  Win- 
chester with  Glastonbury,  whei"e  Irish  monks  were  often  resident, 
may  have  been  the  cause.  See  Stokes,  as  above,  p.  xlv.,  and  Libe7- 
Vitcp  of  New  Minster  {Hampshire  Records  Society),  p.  49,  note. 
All  the  famous  English  names  are  there,  but  no  one  since  the 
Norman  Conquest.  Werburgh  and  Alphege,  Cuthbert  and  Ed- 
ward the  Martyr,  Wilfrith  and  Dunstan,  Aldhelm,  Augustine, 
Bede,  Winfrith,  Etheldreda,  Kenelm,  Oswald  and  Oswin,  Birinus, 
Hilda  and  Eadmund,  are  among  them,  names  which  English 
visitors,  or  it  may  be  English  slaves,  as  well  as  travelled  Irish 
monks,  had  made  familiar  in  Ireland.  Here  again  \\c  find  that  the 
virtue  which  the  poetic  martyrologist  most  prized,  it  is  clear  from 
the  repeated  epithet  which  he  confers  again  and  again  upon  saints 
of  his  own  race,  was  chastity.  The  English  saints  came  to  the  help 
of  those  whom  they  had  conquered. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    hi 

to  present  no  attractive  figure  of  saintliness.  A  strict 
monastic  life,  and  an  unbending  orthodoxy,  do  not 
meet  with  wide  sympathy  to-day.  Perhaps  the  strength 
of  each  was  never  more  conspicuously  needed.  The 
absolute  sacrifice  of  personal  interest,  the  undeviuting 
consistency  of  adherence  to  the  Truth  when  once  it  is 
known,  or  so  far  as  it  can  be  known,  are  standards 
which  the  world  does  not  readily  accept  in  an  age  of 
self-seeking  and  of  rapid  change.  x\ugustine,  as  he 
appears  to  us  in  the  records  and  memories  we  have 
of  his  work  and  character,  gains  something  of  his 
solemnity  and  beauty  from  his  association  with  the 
great  and  holy  Gregory,  "our  father,"  as  one  of  our 
earliest  Councils  called  him,^  our  teacher  who  sent  to 
our  forefathers  the  rule  of  regenerating  grace.-  "  The 
seal  of  his  apostleship,''  says  Bede,  "  are  we  in  the 
Lord."'^  It  was  he  who  had  seen  the  Yorkshire  lads 
in  the  market  at  Rome,  who  had  bought  Enghsh  slaves 
himself  to  be  the  firstfruits  of  their  nation  to  Christ, 
and  who  sent  forth  Augustine  because,  as  he  thought 
when  he  wrote  to  the  Prankish  Kings,  the  English 
nation  desired  earnestly  to  be  converted  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith.*  But,  though  the  memory  of  Gregory  was 
always  gratefully  cherished  in  England,  it  was  through 
the  work  of  Augustine  that  he  was  remembered,  and 

1  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  iii.  368. 

-  So  S.  Aldhelm,  de  laiidc  viri^initatis,  55,  quoted  hy  Bright, 
Early  E7iglish  Chuixh  History^  p.  37. 

^  Hist.  Reel.,  ii.  i.  Of  the  reverence  always  entertained  for 
S.  Gregory  an  excellent  example  is  the  famous  early  English 
Homily  on  his  birthday  (translated  with  notes  by  E.  Elstob,  1709) 
which  is  full  of  interesting  details. 

*  Epist.  vi.  ind.  xiv.  num.  57. 


112  The  English  Saints 

the  character  of  him  who  was  sent  seemed  to  take 
some  of  its  colouring  from  the  great  man  who  sent 
him. 

Augustine,  as  Bede  paints  him,  converted  men  at  least 
as  much  by  his  life  as  by  his  preaching.  Constant  he  was 
in  prayer,  vigil  and  fast,  and  with  his  companions  "living 
in  all  respects  conformably  to  what  they  taught  and 
prepared  to  suffer  any  adversity  and  even  to  die  for 
the  truth  which  they  preached."  When  the  king  was 
converted  it  was  from  Augustine  that  he  learnt  in  no 
way  to  compel  men  to  accept  the  faith.  T^ully  conscious 
of  the  greatness  of  the  task  to  which  he  was  called, 
and  of  the  outward  wonders  that  men  said  that  he 
worked,^  he  felt,  it  is  clear,  that  it  was  of  supreme  im- 
portance that  the  nation  whose  conversion  had  been  so 
wonderfully  given  into  his  hands  should  be  taught  in 
all  matters  great  and  small  the  full  meaning  and  value 
of  loyalty  to  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints. 
This  explains  his  questions  to  S.  Gregory,  of  the 
authenticity  of  \\hich  there  need  be  no  doubt.  They 
are  concerned  with  high  things,  with  seeming  triviali- 
ties, and  with  moral  questions  in  which  it  might  well 
seem  the  missionary  might  already  have  been  in- 
structed.- We  have  been  well  reminded  that  "  there 
arc  many  great  missionary  bishops  of  recent  days  who 
have  had  to  give  prolonged  thought  and  study  and 
prayer,  in  the  interests  of  their  people,   to  questions 

'  But  Gregory  in  his  letter  to  him  need  not  be  understood  to 
attribute  to  him  any  pride  in  the  "  miracles." 

"  Professor  W.  E.  CoUins  in  his  most  interesting  and  suggestive 
book  The  Beginnings  of  English  Christianity^  pp.  72,  116,  121,  192, 
deals  fully  and  learnedly  with  the  question,  and  is  convincing. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    113 

which  do  not  differ  widely  from  those  which  were  put 
by  Augustine  to  Gregory.'"' 

And  indeed  it  is  part  of  Augustine's  greatness  that 
where  moral  or  theological  truth — which  are  indeed 
inseparable — were  concerned,  nothing  was  trivial  in  his 
eyes.  He  was  determined  to  have  no  paltering  with 
what  was  evil  in  paganism,  and  to  set  up  a  standard 
of  purity  and  holiness  which  should  remain  for  ever 
before  the  eyes  of  the  English  people.  He  saw  that 
the  strength  of  the  Teutonic  affinity  to  Christian  morals 
was  a  characteristic  to  be  developed  and  encouraged  at 
every  point.  The  natural  purity,  so  wonderful  to  the 
non-Christian  Roman,  was  to  the  missionary  the 
greatest  gift  which  the  race  brought  with  it  when  it 
entered  the  Church,  and  it  was  one  which  the  power 
of  the  divine  Christ  should  to  the  utmost  raise,  elevate, 
and  supernaturally  endow,  for  the  enrichment  of  the 
life  of  all  Christendom.  That  is  the  first  and  con- 
spicuous lesson  which  Augustine's  life  was  set  to  teach 
the  English  peoples.  Cherish  and  develop  the  purity 
of  family  life,  for  on  it  lies  the  salvation  of  nations  : 
"  unto  the  pure  all  things  are  pure,  but  unto  them  that 
are  defiled  and  unbelieving  is  nothing  pure."  But  no 
less  characteristic  of  Augustine's  mission  and  of  his 
personal  influence  was  the  insistence  upon  exactness 
of  theological   statement  and  of  obedience  to  ecclesi- 

^'  Ibid.^  p.  72.  Duchesne,  Origities  du  citlte  chretien,  p.  94,  held 
that  Theodore  of  Tarsus  was  really  responsible  for  the  interroga- 
tories and  response,  and  this  M.  Bertrand,  Religion  des  Ganlois 
considered  to  make  the  main  argument  of  his  book  stronger.  But 
now  in  consequence  of  Dr.  Mommsen's  article,  iVi'w^i-  Arc/iiv,  xvii. 
387-396,  he  has  changed  his  view  (so  in  second  edition).  See 
Professor  CoUins's  Appendix  II.,  p.  192. 

8 


114  Till'"-  English  Saints 

astical  custom.  System,  accuracy,  rule,  were  needed 
to  bring  the  nations  to  Christ :  a  discretion  might  be 
wisely  allowed  by  which  a  Gallican  or  any  other  good 
usage  might  be  preferred  to  the  Roman  in  which 
S.  Augustine  had  been  brought  up  :  but  the  universal 
custom  of  the  continental  churches  must  prevail  over 
the  unreasoning  isolation  of  the  Celts. 

The  one  side  of  Augustine's  influence  appears  most 
prominently  in  his  questions  to  S.  Gregory  and  the 
Pope's  answers,  the  other  in  his  interview  on  the 
frontiers  of  the  Hwiccas  and  the  West  Saxons,  at 
Down  Ampney  near  Cricklade  and  the  head  of 
Thames,^  with  the  bishops  of  the  West  Welsh.-  It 
was  a  critical  meeting,  because  it  was  here  more  than 
anywhere  else  that  it  was  decided  whether  Celtic  cus- 
toms and  Celtic  saints  should  influence  the  Christianity 
of  the  Teutonic  conquerors.  Augustine  was  prepared 
to  concede  much,  the  tonsure,  the  use  of  a  Celtic 
Liturgy,  and  other  lesser  things,  it  is  probable  :  but  on 
matters  of  more  importance  he  was  firm.    The  Brythons 

^  It  is  perhaps  superfluous  to  note  the  place  of  meeting" :  but  the  dis- 
cussions on  the  subject  have  been  so  interesting  that  I  cannot  forbear 
to  refer  to  Plummer,  Bede,  ii.  73,  74  :  Browne,  Augustine  and  his 
Companions^  pp.  98  sqq.:  Collins,  Beginnings  of  English  Christianity^ 
pp.  87  sqq.  J  and  to  note  that  in  the  more  recent  continuance  of  the 
controversy  the  Bishop  of  Bristol,  Proceedings  of  the  Clifton  Anti- 
quarian Clul\  vol.  iv.,  pp.  264  sqq.,  has  entirely  proved  his  point  (as 
against  the  very  weak  arguments  finally  summed  up  by  the  Rev. 
C.  S.  Taylor,  Transactions  of  the  Bristol  and  Gloucestershire 
ArchcEological  Society,  vol.  xxiv.,  pp.  159-171). 

■^  That  they  were  West  Welsh  was  suggested  by  Mr.  Plummer,  fol- 
lowed by  Professor  Collins  and  accepted  by  the  Bishop  of  Bristol, 
Transactions,  etc.,  as  above.  Dr.  Zimmer,  Celtic  Church  in  Britain 
and  Ireland,  p.  59,  seems  still  to  think  that  they  came  from  Wales. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    115 

"preferred  their  own  traditions  before  all  the  churches 
in  the  world  which  in  Christ  agree  among  themselves."^ 
Augustine's  final  speech,  as  Bede  gives  it,  sums  up  his 
position  :  "  You  go  against  our  custom,  or  rather  that  of 
the  Universal  Church,  on  many  points:  but  if  you  are 
willing  to  yield  on  these  three,  to  keep  Easter  at  its  right 
time,  to  perform  baptism  according  to  the  manner  of  the 
holy  Roman  and  Apostolic  Church  and  to  join  with  us 
in  preaching  the  word  of  the  Lord  to  the  English, — 
we  will  quietly  bear  with  your  other  practices  however 
contrary  to  our  own."  It  was  Catholicism  as  opposed 
to  isolation.  The  same  question,  in  regard  to  the  noble 
missionaries  of  the  North,  occurred  again  at  Whitby 
sixty  years  later :  but  while  the  Brythons  of  the  West 
refused  to  help  in  converting  the  English  the  Scots 
of  the  North  had  already  accomplished  a  noble  work. 
But  the  principle  was  the  same  :  and  the  legacy  which 
Augustine  left  to  the  English  people  was  that  of  union, 
communion  with  the  whole  Catholic  Church.'-^  And 
indirectly  it  is  impossible  to  say  how  much  English 
character  may  not  owe  to  the  failure  of  these  meetings 
with  the  Welsh  bishops.  The  lines  on  which  English 
Christianity  was  drawn  out,  the  influence  brought  to 
bear  by  priests  and  teachers,  was  that  of  the  united 
Church  and  the  harmonious  theology  of  Christendom. 
There  was  nothing  singular  or  distorted  in  the  type 
which  was  developed  in  the  English  race. 

1  Bede,  ii.  2.  Cf.  Bright,  Early  Etiglish  Church  History,  on  the 
two  interviews  ;  Pearson,  Hist.  Engl.,  i.  125,  and  Warren,  Liturgy 
and  Ritual  of  the  Celtic  Church,  p.  76  (referred  to  by  Bright). 

■^  Among  recent  work  see  S.  Augustin  de  Cantorbery,  Premiere 
mission  benedictine^  by  Louis  Ldveque,  O.S.B.  Revue  des  Questions 
Hisioriques,  t.  Ixv.,  1899,  p.  353. 

8—2 


ii6  The  English  Saints 

And  that  is  the  characteristic  of  the  work  of  all  the 
other  missionaries  who  came  to  labour  among  the 
conquerors  of  Ikitain.  Birinus/  for  example,  who 
preached  to  the  most  pagan  of  pagans,  as  Bede  calls 
the  West  Saxons,  was  sent  from  Rome,  and  like 
Paulinus  and  Felix  he  was  inspired  with  the  wider 
interests  and  fuller  hopes  of  the  enlightened  West. 
They  all  followed  in  the  steps  of  him  whom  the  Irish 
martyrology  called  "dear  Augustinus,  the  wealthy 
bishop  of  the  Saxons."'  And  so,  it  may  fairly  be  said, 
did  those  who  owed  their  original  training  to  the  Irish 
mission,  Cedd  and  Chad  and  the  others  who  had  sat  st 
the  feet  of  Aidan  or  of  Cuthbert  :  they  put  aside  the 
local,  separate,  influences,  and  were  merged  in  the 
wider  unity  which  Augustine  represented. 

But  none  the  less  the  Irish  missionaries  are  not  to 
be  forgotten.  That  some  influence  was  exercised  on 
the  Christianity  of  England  by  the  memory  of  the 
earliest  missionaries  of  the  North  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  The  memory  of  S.  Ninian,  for  example,  was 
preserved  in  full  vigour  till  the  records  and  traditions 
of  him  became  stereotyped  in  the  twelfth  century  by 
the  work  of  Ailred  of  Rievaulx.-'     He  was  a  Brython, 

1  For  Birinus  see  Bede,  iii.,  7:  Nova  Legeiida,  i.  118  sqq.  (as 
in  Surius).  Mr.  J.  E.  Field  s  S.  Bcrin  (1902)  is  a  very  full  collection 
of  history  and  legend. 

"  I  wonder  that  no  one  has  placed  liirinus  in  the  position  which 
Aidan  is  made  to  hold.  He  really  was  the  'apostle,'  or  first 
evangelist,  of  that  great  district  of  Wessex,  extending  from  Devon- 
shire to  Bedfordshire."    Dr.  Bright  in  a  private  letter  quoted  below. 

-  Martyroloi^y  of  Goriiuvt  (Henry  Bradshaw  Society,  1895),  p.  104. 

■'  This  was  drawn  up  from  earlier  materials.  Ailred  mentions 
Bede  and  a  liber  de  vita  et  miraculis  barbario  scriptus,  and  he 
also  visited  the  district  associated  with  S.  Ninian's  life.     Ikit  his 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    117 

born  (if  xVilred  was  rightly  informed)  in  Strathclyde, 
and  he  studied  at  Rome,  probably  under  Pope  Siricius 
(385-399).  About  390  he  returned  to  his  native  country, 
which  was  wild  and  barbarous,  a  strange  contrast  to 
the  luxurious  and  still  semi-pagan  city  he  had  left. 
Strathclyde  was  not  wholly  heathen,  for  Ninian's  own 
father  was  a  Christian,  and  he  was  warmly  welcomed 
on  his  return.  His  great  work  was  the  conversion  of 
the  southern  Picts,  and,  only  second  to  that,  the  founda- 
tion of  the  church  at  Withern,  dedicated  to  S.  Martin, 
the  friend  and  the  pattern  missionary  in  whose  steps  he 
had  followed.  His  work  was  accomplished  before  the 
Romans  left  Britain.  About  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
later  it  was  continued  by  S.  Kentigern  (Mungo)  who 
revived  what  had  begun  to  decay,  and  founded  schools 
of  priests.  Briefly,  the  influence  of  these  missions 
must  be  looked  for  in  the  following  ways :  in  a  firm, 
wise,  and  tactful  protest  on  behalf  of  purity  of  life,  in 
a  close  intercourse  with  Gaul  and  with  Ireland,  in  the 
introduction  of  Christian  education,  and  in  the  dedica- 
tion of  sculptured  art  to  the  worship  of  God.^     These 


work  is  of  little  value.  The  English  Chronicle  mentions  him, 
drawing  its  information  from  Bede.  The  life  in  the  Nova  Legenda, 
ii.  218  sqq.,  is  an  abridgement  of  the  life  of  Ailred,  and  perhaps 
follows  a  MS.  in  the  Burgundian  Library  at  Brussels.  See  Forbes, 
Lives  of  S.  Nini'nn  and  S.  Kentigcm,  i874-  Irish  Kalendars 
preserve  his  memory  and  a  lost  Irish  life  was  used  by  the  Bollandists. 
Acta  Sanctorum,  Sept.  16.  Bede  himself  refers  to  tradition.  See 
also  Hardy,  Catalogue  of  MSS.,  i.  44-46. 

^  See  on  all  the  points  the  Lives  of  S.  Niiiian  and  S.  Kentigern, 
passim,  and  the  most  interesting  and  suggestive  lectures  of  the 
Bishop  of  Bristol,  The  Christian  Church  in  these  islands  before  the 
coming  of  Augtcsiine :  lecture  iii.  is  especially  full  of  interest  and 
value  to  the  historian  in  regard  to  points  often  neglected. 


The  English  Saints 


ideas,  owing  their  initiation  or  their  force  no  doubt 
largely  to  the  inspiration  of  the  great  S.  Martin,  worked 
into  the  lives  of  the  disciples  of  Ninian  and  Kentigern, 
were  the  legacy  which  the  early  missions  of  the  North 
bequeathed  to  the  later  English  Church.  And  Kenti- 
gern links  these  influences  to  the  work  of  S.  Columba, 
as  Columba  is  the  predecessor  of  Aidan  and  Cuthbert. 

There  is  no  more  beautiful  tale  of  Christian  fellowship 
than  that  which  the  twelfth  century  biographer  made, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  from  some  genuine  traditions, 
of  the  meeting  between  Kentigern  and  Columba.^ 

"And  when  the  proper  time  came  the  holy  father 
S.  Columba  went  forth,  and  a  great  company  of  his 
disciples,  and  of  others  who  desired  to  behold  and  look 
upon  the  face  of  so  great  a  man,  accompanied  him. 
When  he  approached  the  place  called  Mellindenor, 
where  the  saint  abode  at  that  time,  he  divided  all  his 
people  into  three  bands  and  sent  forward  a  message  to 
announce  to  the  holy  prelate  his  own  arrival,  and  that 
of  those  who  accompanied  him. 

"  The  holy  pontiff  was  glad  when  they  said  unto  him 
these  things  concerning  them,  and  calling  together  his 
clergy  and  people  similarly  in  three  bands,  he  went 
forth  with  spiritual  songs  to  meet  them.  In  the  fore- 
front of  the  procession  were  placed  the  juniors  in  order 
of  time ;  in  the  second  those  more  advanced  in  years ; 
in  the  third,  with  himself,  walked  the  aged  in  length 
of  days,  white  and  hoary,  venerable  in  countenance, 
gesture,  and  bearing,  yea,  even  in  grey  hairs.  And  all 
sang,  '  In  the  ways  of  the  Lord  how  great  is  the  glory 

'  Jocelin's  Life  of  S.  Kentigern,  {Lives,  etc.,  pp.  229-230).  See 
also  Nova  Legenda,  p.  125. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    119 

of  the  Lord  ;'  and  again  they  answered  :  '  The  way  of 
the  just  is  made  straight,  and  the  path  of  the  saints 
prepared.'  On  S.  Columba's  side  they  sang  with 
tuneful  voices,  '  The  saints  shall  go  from  strength  to 
strength,  until  unto  the  God  of  gods  appeareth  every- 
one in  Sion,'  with  the  Alleluia.  Meanwhile,  some  who 
had  come  with  S.  Columba  asked  him,  saying,  '  Hath 
S.  Kentigern  come  in  the  first  chorus  of  singers  ?' 
The  saint  answered,  '  Neither  in  the  first  nor  in  the 
second  cometh  the  gentle  saint.'  And  when  they 
loudly  asked  how  he  knew  this,  he  said,  '  I  see  a  fiery 
pillar  in  fashion  as  of  a  golden  crown,  set  with  sparkling 
gems,  descending  from  heaven  upon  his  head,  and  a 
light  of  heavenly  brightness  encircling  him  like  a  certain 
veil,  and  covering  him,  and  again  returning  to  the 
skies.  Wherefore  it  is  given  to  me  to  know  by  this 
sign  that,  like  Aaron,  he  is  the  elect  of  God,  and 
sanctified  ;  who,  clothed  with  light  as  with  a  garment, 
and  with  a  golden  crown  represented  on  his  head, 
appeareth  to  me  with  the  sign  of  sanctity.'  When 
these  two  godlike  men  met,  they  mutually  embraced 
and  kissed  each  other,  and  having  first  satiated  them- 
selves with  the  spiritual  banquet  of  Divine  words,  the}- 
after  that  refreshed  themselves  with  bodily  food.  But 
how  great  was  the  sweetness  of  Divine  contemplation 
within  these  holy  hearts  is  not  for  me  to  say,  nor  is  it 
given  to  me,  or  to  such  as  I  am,  to  reveal  the  manna 
which  is  hidden,  and,  as  I  think,  entirely  unknown 
save  unto  them  that  taste  it."-"^  And  so  the  two  saints 
parted,  never  to  meet  again  on  earth.  The  story  of 
their  meeting  is  one  of  those  bright  reliefs  that  stand 
^  Lives  of  S.  Ninian  and  S.  Kentigern^  as  abo\e,  p.  230. 


120  The  English  Saints 

out  from  the  dark  background  of  wars  and  lusts  on  the 
picture  of  Hfe  in  the  Middle  Ages.  In  days  of  cruelty 
and  crime  the  heroes  of  the  Church  gave  the  salvation 
of  Christ  to  the  suffering  souls  among  whom  they  were 
sent. 

If  the  northern  English  learnt  something  from 
Ninian  and  Kentigern,  very  different  in  degree  was 
their  debt  to  Columba.  And  of  Columba  there  is 
happily  not  a  little  authentic  record.^  His  work  in 
Britain  lasted  from  his  arrival  at  lona  in  563  till  his 
death  in  597  :  and  it  was  the  repairing  of  waste  places, 
and  the  laying  of  sure  foundations.  He  was  a  great 
missionary,  inspired,  like  all  the  Irish  saints  of  his  day, 
with  the  desire  of  travel-  which  was  subordinated  to 
the  work  of  Christ.  He  was  earnest  in  mortifying  self 
and  in  upholding  the  Christian  standard  of  purity, 
which  the  Celts  found  it  so  hard  to  attain  to :  and  he 
had  a  keen  zest  for  knowledge. 

From  the  day  of  his  landing  at  lona,  from  the 
beginning  of  his  building  of  monastery,  church,  and 
school,  he  kept  each  of  these  interests  before  him  : 
and  yet  they  were  but  one  interest,  a  zeal  for  the 
conversion  of  the  world  to  Christ.  He  was  energetic 
as  a  founder  of  monasteries,  active  as  an  evangelist, 
stern  as  an  enemy  of  false  worship.  His  biographer-^ 
tells  of  meetings  which  show  the  strength  of  the  druid 

1  Though  it  is  true  that  "the  eadiest  record  of  him  is  sixty  years 
posterior  to  his  death  and  is  already  full  of  legendary  matter" 
(Flummer,  Bede,  ii.  130)  I  do  not  think  it  can  be  doubted  that 
both  Adamnan  and  Bede  preserve  authentic  facts. 

■''  "  Natio  Scotorum,  quibus  consuetudoperegrinandi  jam  p;une  in 
naturam  conversa  est."    Vita  S.  Gall.,  Pertz,  Moit.  Hist.  cJcr/n.,  ii.  3c. 

^  Adamnan,  Pita  Cohiuib.,  ii.  x\xiv.,  xxxv. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    121 

worship  and  the  veneration  of  springs  and  water- 
courses. With  gentleness  and  practical  common-sense 
he  washed  in  the  spring  that  had  been  regarded  as 
divine,  and  Hke  S.  Martin,  blessed  it  for  the  use  of 
Christian  folk  :  but  he  sternly  resisted  the  druid  who 
had  detained  a  poor  girl  in  slavery,  and  he  had  no  fear 
of  the  enchantments  they  pretended,  or  of  the  rough 
sea  where  he  was  safe  in  the  hand  of  God.^  His 
intense  sympathy  made  him  feel  the  distresses  of  his 
brothers  when  they  were  far  away :  Adamnan'^  tells  a 
beautiful  story  of  his  prayers  at  the  altar  for  Connac  in 
the  terrors  of  the  sea,  and  of  the  strength  of  the  faith 
with  which  he  announced  his  safety.^  But  the  most 
beautiful  story  of  all — as  it  is  so  often  in  the  lives  of 
these  simple  servants  of  God — is  the  story  of  his  death. 
Feeble  with  age,  he  sat  by  the  roadside  to  rest,  the  last 
day  that  he  walked  out,  and  there  came  to  him  the  old 
white  horse  of  the  monastery,  which  nestled  its  head 
on  his  breast,  and  seemed  to  weep  as  though  it  knew 
that  he  was  going  to  depart.  He  looked  round  for  the 
last  time  upon  his  island  home,  and  spoke  of  the  glory 
that  God  would  give  it.  He  wrote  in  the  psalter  he 
was  copying,  and  ended  with  that  verse  of  the 
xxxiv.  psalm  :  "  But  they  who  seek  the  Lord  shall 
want  no  manner  of  thing  that  is  good."  It  was 
Saturday    night,  and   he   went    to  the    chapel   for  the 

'  Adamnan,  Vita  Cohintb.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  xi. 

^  Ibid.,  ii.  xcii. 

3  With  the  hfe  by  Adamnan  it  is  curious  to  compare  the  words 
of  Mr.  Willis  Bund,  in  the  climax  of  his  paradox,  that  Columba's 
"  real  claim  to  sanctity  rested  on  the  fact  that  he  was  a  chief  of  the 
northern  branch  of  the  great  Irish  tribe  of  Hy  Niall."  The  Celtic 
Church  of  Wales,  p.  464. 


122  The  English  Saints 

evening  mass  (as  Adamnan^  still  calls  the  night  office)  : 
then  back  to  his  cell,  where  he  gave  his  last  commands 
to  the  monks  to  live  at  peace,  promising  them,  with 
a  confidence  such  as  Wulfstan  showed  live  centuries 
later,  his  intercession  before  the  throne  of  God."'^  When 
at  midnight  came  the  bell  for  matins,  he  rose  and  went 
first  and  alone  to  kneel  before  the  altar,  where  one  of 
the  monks  found  him  prostrate.  As  the  brothers  came 
round  him  he  looked  up  with  a  smile,  as  though 
gladdened  by  an  angelic  vision,  and,  raising  his  hand 
to  bless,  so  he  passed  to  the  Paradise  of  God. 

He  was  a  man  whom  others  rejoiced  to  follow. 
"  Physically  and  intellectually  he  towered  above  his 
fellows.  Of  a  tall  and  commanding  appearance, 
powerful  frame,  broad  face,  close  and  curly  hair,  his 
gray  eyes  large  and  luminous,  he  looked  the  saint  he 
was,  joyful  and  radiant,  with  a  love  for  everything 
beautiful  in  nature,  animate  and  inanimate."^ 

The  influence  of  his  work  was  conspicuously  Celtic. 
Columba  indeed  was  a  Celt  of  the  Celts,  passionate  in 
anger  and  in  love,  deeply  attached  to  his  native  land, 
yet  ready  to  leave  it  at  a  higher  call,  a  poet  of  intensest 
fervour  and  a  patron  of  letters  and  the  leader  of  a 
Renaissance  at  once  literar}'  and  Christian.  Under 
reat    schools  of   learning  : 

^  Ibid.,  iii.  wx.,  "ad  \espertinalcm  I)ominic;i:  noctis  missam  in- 
greditur  ecclesiam."  "  The  office  which  he  attended  was  that 
commonly  known  as  the  vigilicp  nocturne''''  (Reeves).  So  Shake- 
speare's use  in  Romeo  and  Juliet,  iv.  i.  There  is  nothing  for  Pro- 
testants to  be  frightened  at  in  the  word. 

-  Ibid.  Cf.  W.  Mah-nesbur.,  Gesta  Pontificum  (ed.  Hamilton), 
pp.  278-279. 

^  Magnus  Maclean,  The  Literature  of  the  Celts,  p.  42. 


The  Saints  of  the  English  Conversion    123 

through  him  a  Hterary  language  sprang  up.  His  own 
biographer  left  "  the  most  valuable  monument  of  the 
early  Celtic  Church  which  has  escaped  the  ravages  of 
time."'^ 

The  hero-worship  which  found  miracles  in  all  that 
he  did,  and  ascribed  to  his  power  with  God  many 
wonders  after  his  death,  was  the  natural  expression, 
among  a  superstitious  people,  of  the  intense  love  and 
reverence  for  a  man  of  holiness,  simple,  natural,  and 
human.  Monks  who  followed  in  his  steps  were  men 
whom  even  sinners  came  to  love.  And  of  his  spiritual 
children  were  Cedd,  and  Aidan,  and  Cuthbert. 

So  the  first  influences  passed  over  the  English 
character.  The  fierce,  wild  strength  of  the  Teutonic  con- 
querors saw  a  life  set  before  them  that  had  new  ideals, 
a  life  in  which  strength  was  subservient  to  holiness, 
in  which  conquest  led  the  way  only  to  the  service  of 
man,  in  which  every  virtue  natural  to  their  race  was 
blessed  and  transfigured.  In  that  way  the  second 
generation  of  English  converts  drew  to  themselves  the 
best  thoughts  and  the  best  examples  of  Gaul  and  Wales 
and  Scotland  and  of  Rome  itself. 

"  Consider  the  issue  of  their  life  :  imitate  their  faith." 
These  were  the  words  of  the  preachers  of  righteousness 
who  grew  up,  from  the  seventh  century  onwards,  to 
lead  the  English  into  the  faith  and  unity  of  Christ. 
These  were  the  examples  of  remembered  lives,  in  their 
purity  and  devotion,  which  the  clustering  legends  did 
not  hide.  When  the  Northumbrian  thegn  asked  if  the 
new  teachers  could  solve  the  riddle  of  life,  which  was 

1  Magnus  Maclean,  The  Literature  of  the  Celts,  p.  -]-].  See  on 
Columba  and  Adamnan,  pp.  4078. 


124  T^^^  English  Saints 

as  a  bird  that  flew  for  a  moment  through  the  hghted 
hall  and  out  again  into  the  darkness,  the  answer  that 
came  most  clearly  was  read  in  the  lives  of  the  men  who 
preached  Christ,  as  it  was  given  later  in  the  lives  of 
those,  monks  or  kings,  women  or  patient  sufferers,  who 
ruled  their  doings  by  the  law  of  the  Cross.  The 
English  were  then  content — and  may  we  not  be  con- 
tent for  once  to  follow  them  ? — to  read  their  theology 
not  by  the  light  of  puzzling  metaphysics,  or  of  dogmatic 
definitions  alone,  valuable  and  necessary  though  they 
are,  but  in  the  deeds  and  triumphs  of  honest  and 
struggling  men. 


LECTURE  IV 

THE  ROYAL  SAINTS 

"And  kings  shall  be  thy  nursing  fathers,  and  their  queens  thy 
nursing  mothers  ;  they  shall  bow  down  to  thee  with  their  faces  to 
the  earth,  and  lick  the  dust  of  thy  feet  ;  and  thou  shalt  know  that 
I  am  the  Lord." — ISAIAH  xlix.  23. 

Those  often-quoted  words  describe  with  a  remarkable 
exactness  the  relations  between  Church  and  State  in 
the  early  days  of  the  English  conversion.  English 
Christianity  grew  up  under  the  shadow  of  the  throne. 
Kings  rejoiced  to  hear  and  to  follow  the  Gospel 
message.  It  was  natural  that  those  who  began  to 
write  history  should  magnify  their  virtues  and  give 
opportunity  for  later  hagiologists  to  rank  many  kings 
among  the  saints.  Ethelred  and  Eadwine,  plain  men 
enough,  acquired  a  sanctity  from  tradition ;  and  as 
centuries  passed  away  other  and  stronger  examples 
established  something  of  a  customary  attribution. 

A  special  character  of  goodness  was  claimed  for  the 
English  kings  by  a  thirteenth  century  clerk  who  ad- 
dressed his  poetic  treatment  of  the  life  of  Edward  Con- 
fessor to  Queen  Eleanor  of  Provence,  Henry  III.'s  wife.^ 

1  La  Estoirc  de  Seini  A-ldwai-d  Ic  ret  was  probably  written  for 

Henry    III.'s   commemoration  of  the   Confessor  in    his  abbey  of 

[  135   ] 


126  The  English  Saints 

"  In  the  world  there  is  not,  (well  I  dare  say  it  to  you,) 
Country,  realm,  or  empire. 
Where  have  been  so  man}-  kings  good 
And  holy,  as  in  the  island  of  England, 
Who  after  their  earthly  reign 
Now  reign  kings  in  Heaven, 
Saints,  martyrs,  and  confessors, 
Of  whom  many  for  God  died  ; 
Some,  mighty  and  very  bold, 
As  were  Arthur,  Edmund,  and  Cnut, 
Who  by  strength  and  courage 
Increased  their  baronage  : 
Others  N\ho  were  more  wise, 
Peaceable  and  moderate. 
Who  by  good  counsel  and  their  intelligence 
Were  powerful  in  their  time, 
As  were  Oswald,  Oswin,  Edmund, 
Who  to  Heaven  passed  from  the  world ; 
Especially  Edward  the  king 
Was  such,  of  whom  I  must  write." 

The  courtly  poet  of  Henry  III.'s  day  had  many 
forerunners.  The  English  people  have  been  thought, 
by  unprejudiced  observers,  to  show  a  "  natural  piety. "^ 
It  was  to  be  expected  that  this  should  be  cherished  by 
misfortune  and  should  cling  round  the  heroes  of 
national  resistance  in  days  of  struggle.  Thus  among 
the   earliest    popular   canonizations    are  those   of    the 

Westminster.     The  lines  quoted  are  p.  25  of  Dr.  Luard's  edition 
(Rolls  Series,  1858),  and  are  translated,  p.  179. 

'  So  F.  Liebermann,  Die  Heiligen  Etigla/ids,  Hanno\er,  1889, 
speaks  of  "  die  inni^-'e  Frommigkeit,  die  deni  Gemiith  des  Eng- 
lischen  Volkes  eignet." 


The  Royal  Saints  127 

Kentish  kings.  From  beyond  the  havoc  of  the  Danish 
Wars  men  looked  back  to  a  golden  age  of  Christian 
faith,  which  indeed  had  never  existed,  and  collected 
early  English  traditions  of  the  sanctity  of  a  Royal 
House.  We  have  early  lives  of  S.  Ethelred  and 
S.  Ethelbert  and  S.  Mildred  and  S.  Eadburgh,  due  to 
the  ecclesiastical  revival  of  the  tenth  century,  and  a 
curious  list  of  the  saints  then  especially  venerated  in 
England,  and  of  their  last  resting-places.^  Many  of 
them  were  not  formally  canonized :  but  all  had  their 
places  in  popular  reverence.  Some  had  no  authentic 
history  :  but  none  the  less  they  were  authentic  saints. 

These  earliest  Christian  memories  naturally  clustered 
round  Kent.  There  it  was  that  Christ  had  won  His 
first  conquests  among  the  conquerors  of  Britain.  "  You 
are  the  first  fruits,  the  very  beginning  of  the  salvation 
of  the  English ;  in  you  is  the  root  and  foundation  of 
our  Catholic  profession  ;  among  you  repose  those  who 
in  their  day  were  the  brightest  luminaries  of  our  island, 
through  whom  the  day-star  of  the  truth  has  shone 
throughout  the  whole  of  Britain."  So  wrote  Alcuin 
to  the  men  of  Kent.^  The  land  of  ^thelberht  and 
Augustine  was  conspicuous  in  the  number  of  its  saints. 

So  men  thought :  but  their  memory  was  at  best 
shadowy,  no  more  than  one  aspect  of  a  general  senti- 
ment of  reverence  for  kingship.  But  greater  than 
these  Southern  kings  were  those  of  the  Northern 
realm.  The  first  conversion  of  Eadwine  by  Paulinus 
left  behind  it  a  firm  foundation,  notably  in  Deira,  the 
land  about  York  :  "  then,'"  says  Bede,  in  pathetic  con- 

1  See  Liebermann,  op.  at. 

2  Jaff^,  Monumenta  Alcui/iiatta,  p.  370. 


128  The  English  Saints 

trast  to  the  later  days,  "  so  great  was  the  fervour  of 
faith  and  the  desire  for  the  laver  of  salvation."^  There 
came  the  years  of  destruction  :  Eadwine's  power  was 
swept  away :  he  himself  died  a  death  that  came  to 
be  counted  martyrdom  :  to  preserve  the  life  of  the 
Christian  Queen,  Paulinus  iied  to  the  South  :  the  new 
kings  who  had  "  renounced  and  betrayed  the  sacra- 
ments of  the  heavenly  kingdom  in  which  they  had 
been  initiated"-  were  slain:  and  there  remained  not 
in  all  Bernicia  church  or  altar  or  cross.  But  the 
evil  memories  were  swept  away  when  there  arose  the 
great  King  Oswald,  the  conqueror  and  the  saint. ^  He 
seems,  as  Gibbon  says  of  S.  Louis,  to  have  combined 
the  virtues  of  "  a  king,  a  hero  and  a  man."  There  is 
no  tale  told  of  him  that  does  not  show  him  good  and 
brave.  He  was  converted  and  baptized  during  his 
banishment  among  the  Irish  [Scots]  monks,*  having 
grown  up  "as  a  rose  among  thorns."^  When  the 
country  was  given  over  to  the  savageries  of  the  heathen 
English  and  the  Christian  Welsh,  Oswald  came  to 
save  it,  and  he  was  cheered  to  his  work  by  a  dream, 
a  vision  of  S.  Columba,  "  beaming  with  angelic  beauty, 
and  his  lofty  stature  seeming  to  touch  the  clouds."*^ 
"  Be  strong,"  he  said,  as  the  Lord  to  Joshua,  "  and 
play  the   man  .  .  .  the    Lord   hath    granted   me   that 

1  Bede,  ii.  14.  '^  Hid.,  iii.  i. 

^  Besides  Bede,  the  authorities  for  the  life  of  S.  Oswald  are  the 
life  by  Reginald,  see  Simeon  of  Durham,  Rolls  Series,  i.  326.  yUa 
S.  Columbcc,  i.  113.  Nova  Lcgenda,  ii.  261  sqq.  See  Aiialecta 
Bollandiana,  torn,  v.,  for  account  of  MS.  at  Liege,  No.  256. 

*  So  Bede,  iii.  3,  and  Adamnan's  Vita  Cohanbce,  cap.  i,  but  cf 
Simeon  of  Durham,  i.  341. 

^  Simeon  of  Durham,  i.  18.  ^  Adamnan,  c.  i. 


The  Royal  Saints  129 

thine  enemies  shall  be  put  to  flight."  So  was  the 
battle  of  Heavenfield  by  Hexham  won  :  and  it  was 
won  by  the  might  of  the  Cross.  The  king  set  up  a 
wooden  cross  to  be  the  standard  of  his  men,i  holding 
it  with  both  hands  till  the  soldiers  made  it  fast  in  the 
earth,  and  then  calling  them  all  to  kneel  in  prayer  to 
God,  Who  knew  that  the  war  they  fought  was  just,  for 
the  salvation  of  their  land.  An  easy  and  happy  victory- 
was  the  beginning  of  a  short  reign  of  eight  years  in 
which  Oswald  "  took  great  pains  to  build  up  and  enlarge 
the  church  of  Christ."^  He  sent  to  the  Irish  monks 
by  whom  he  had  himself  been  taught  and  they  sent 
him  Aidan,  the  apostle  of  the  North.  The  joint  lives 
of  the  two  give  the  most  beautiful  instance  of  fellow- 
work  to  be  found  among  English  saints.  Oswald 
gave  Aidan  his  see  at  Lindisfarne,  and  was  near  at  hand 
to  guard  him  in  the  rock  fortress  of  Bamborough. 
Most  humbly  and  freeh',  says  Bede,  did  he  take  heed  to 
the  bishop's  admonitions,  and  when  Aidan  preached  the 
Word  in  the  tongue  of  the  Scots  [Irish]  which  the 
thegns  and  ealdormen  of  the  English  did  not  know, 
Oswald,  who  had  learned  it  during  his  long  exile, 
would  expound  to  them.^  "  A  most  beautiful  sight  " 
indeed,  says  the  chronicler,  it  was  when  the  counsellors 
on  the  sands  of  Hoh'  Isle,  or  in  the  great  court  of  the 
castle  of  the  Northumbrian  king,  sat  round  in  wonder 

1  Descriptiun  of  the  scene  in  Raine,  Historians  of  York,  I.  xi.  sqq. 
"  Probably  on  the  mound  on  which  the  chapel  now  stands  Oswald 
set  up  the  famous  wooden  cross."  Cf.  Alcuin,  dc  pontificibus  ct 
Sanctis  Ecci.  Ebor. 

-  Cf.  Adamnan,  cap.  i. 

'^  Bede,  iii.  3. 

*  See  .Elfrics  Lives  of  Saints,  ed.  Skeat,  No.  xxvi.,  p.  125. 

9 


130  The  English  Saints 

as  their  bishop  and  their  king  told  them  the  good 
tidings  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  Many  came  after 
Aidan  from  lona^  to  preach  and  to  baptize.  Churches 
were  built,  the  people  joyfully  flocked  together  to  hear 
the  Word,  possessions  and  lands  were  given  by  the 
king's  bounty"^  to  build  monasteries,  the  young  English 
learnt  from  the  Scots,  and  the  monastic  rule  \\as 
adopted  and  obe}'ed.^  In  Wessex  too  he  played  a 
great  part  in  the  conversion.  It  was  the  West  Saxon 
king  Kynegils  who  gave  him  his  daughter  to  wife,  and 
"yielded  to  the  admonition  of  blessed  Oswald  and  the 
preaching  of  S.  Berin."^  It  is  told  of  Oswald^  that, 
when  a  plague  spread  among  his  people,  he  with  tears 
and  lamentations  laid  to  his  misdeeds  the  sorrow  and 
the  blame.  "  O  Lord,  I  have  grieved  and  done 
wickedly :  as  for  these  sheep,  what  have  they  done  ? 
Against  me,  O  Lord,  and  against  my  house  be  the 
sword  of  Thy  vengeance  turned,  if  so  mine  have  de- 
served this  thing."  And  so  it  was  :  for  the  sickness 
came  to  him,  and  then  God  spared  him, — so  men 
believed  that  he  was  told  b}-  angels  —  for  a  martyr's 
death.  As  the  da}s  went  on  to  the  time  when  he  knew 
that    he    must    die,  his   alms  increased.      One   Easter 

1  Mr.  riummer,  Bcdt\  ii.  127,  has  an  interesting  note,  following 
Dr.  Reeve's,  explaining  how  the  name  lona  arose,  by  mistake, 
from  Hii. 

-  For  record  of  Oswald's  generosity,  see  Alcuin's  poem  in 
Kaine's  Historians  of  Yotk,  i.  349  sqq. 

^  Thus  Bede,  iii.  3. 

•*  Bede,  iii.  7  ;  cf.  Field,  S.  Bcrin,  p.  79. 

'■  By  Reginald,  a  Durham  monk,  in  Txlcttcr  to  Henry,  subprior  of 
Durham,  cap.  10.  (Ed.  Arnold,  in  Simeon  of  Durham.)  The 
ISova  Legeiida  incorporates  this  passage. 


The  Royal  Saints  131 

day  he  ordered  the  meat  set  before  him  at  his  table, 
where  he  sat  with  Aidan,  to  be  given  to  the  poor,  and 
the  bishop,  dehghted  with  an  act  after  his  own  heart, 
stretched  out  his  hand  and  clasped  the  king's.  "  May 
this  hand  never  grow  old,"  he  cried  :  and  so  in  later 
days  it  was  believed  to  have  come  to  pass.^  For  this 
it  may  be  that  men  came  to  call  him  the  "  white- 
handed."' 

The  end  of  his  life  came,  as  great  kings  loved  to 
have  it,  and  as  so  many  of  his  race  had  fallen,  in 
battle.  But  he  did  not  fall  in  victory.  Heathenism  for 
the  moment  triumphed  and  Oswald  and  his  warriors 
were  slain  at  Maserfield.^  Men  remembered  him  as  all 
through  his  life  constantly  at  prayer,  and  it  was  told 
how  when  he  was  hemmed  in  by  enemies  and  saw  that 
his  death  was  at  hand,  he  prayed  for  the  souls  of  his 
army :  and  it  passed,  Bede  says,  into  a  proverb, 
"  '  Lord,  have  mercy  on  their  souls,'  said  Oswald,  as 
he  fell  to  the  ground."^ 

Oswald  became  one  of  the  most  famous  of  all  the 
English  saints.  The  splendid  Bewcastle  cross  was  set 
up  in  memory  of  Alchfrith  his  nephew  with  a  clear 
reference  to  the  great  victory  in  the  strength  of  that 
holy  sign.^     Sixty-two  churches  are  known  to  be  dedi- 

1  The  hand  was  kept  as  a  relic  at  Bamborough  in  the  church. 
So  Bede  and  Simeon  of  Durham.  Reginald  says  it  was  stolen  by 
a  monk  of  Peterborough. 

■■^  Nennius,  c.  64. 

■'  Most  probably  Oswestry,  Oswald's  tree,  where  a  church  was 
built  to  his  memory  at  Oswald's  Cross.  See  Cap,  18  of  Reginald 
for  an  account  of  Oswald's  tree. 

^  Bede,  iii.  12. 

^  See  the  Bishop  of  Bristol's  convincing  lectures  on  The  Conver- 
sion of  the  Heptarchy^  pp.  188-213. 

9-2 


132  The  English  Saints 

cated  to  him/  besides  those  in  which  his  name  is  joined 
with  other  saints.  Through  them  can  be  traced  the 
historic  course  of  his  cult.  A  chapel  marked  the 
place  where  he  set  up  his  cross  on  the  Heavenfield  : 
a  foolish  modern  Protestantism  has  neglected  to  pre- 
serve the  dedication.  Oswestry  and  Win  wick  both 
claim  to  be  the  death-place,  and  both  named  their 
churches  after  the  saint.  There  are  notable  churches 
too  in  the  north,  such  as  Kirk  Oswald  and  Oswald- 
kirk.  Deira  as  well  as  Bernicia  honoured  him,  and, 
through  Osthryd,  Mercia  too  :  dedications  show  the 
progress  of  his  fame.  In  Oxfordshire  there  is  the 
pathetic,  half  ruinous,  half  dismantled,  desecrated 
church  at  Widford,  connected  of  old  with  the  priory 
at  Gloucester,  and  in  Gloucestershire  are  Compton 
Abdale  and  Shipton  Oliffe,  close  to  each  other,  and, 
further  away,  Rockhampton.  But  the  cult  spread  far. 
Bede  already  speaks  of  the  saint's  name  being  reverenced 
over  sea.  In  Ireland  he  was  known  and  honoured. 
At  Bamberg,  Prag,  Zug,  and  many  another  distant 
town  he  was  reverenced,  churches  were  dedicated  to 
him,  and  relics  were  claimed.  Where  the  English 
missionaries  spread  through  Frisia,  along  the  Rhine, 
even  in  Styria  and  Carniola  and  in  Italy,  his  name  is 
still  preserved  and  honoured :  and  as  late  as  the 
fifteenth  centur}-  his  stor\-  was  told  in  Icelandic 
saga.- 

Perhaps  the  finest  tribute  of  all  is  that  of  the  German 
poet  who  celebrates  the   marriage  of  Otto  the   Great, 

^  See  Miss  Arnold- Forstci's  admirable  S///i//es  in  Churcli  Dedi- 
cations^ ii.  311  sqq. 

2  Sec  Mr.  Pluinmer's  note,  licdc,  ii.  I5i;-i0i. 


The  Royal  Saints  133 

and  makes  it  the  chief  glory  of  his  English  bride  that 

she  was  "  born  of  the  blessed  stock 

Of  Oswald  King,  whose  praise  the  world  now  sings, 
For  that  for  Christ  he  gave  himself  to  death.'" 

He  left  behind  him  a  memory  of  joy.  The  Sarnm 
collect  for  S.  Oswald,  as  Bishop  Lightfoot  noted,'-  is 
too  beautiful  to  be  forgotten.  "  Omnipotens  sempiterne 
Deus,  Qui  hujus  diei  jocimdam  sanctamque  laetitiam 
in  sancti  servi  Tui  Oswaldi  passione  consecrasti  :  da 
cordibus  nostris  Tui  timoris  caritatisque  augmentum, 
utcujus  in  terris  sancti  sanguinis  effusionem  celebramus, 
illius  in  caelo  collata  patrocinia  sentiamus.  Per 
Dominum  nostrum."  The  day  of  his  death  was  taken 
by  good  Christian  men  as  one  of  gladsome  and  holy 
rejoicing.  The  northern  thegns  knew  now  that  this 
earthl}-  life  was  more  than  the  passage  of  a  bird  from 
darkness  through  light  into  darkness  again.=^ 

1  Pertz,  Mon.  Germ.  Hist.,  \\.  320,  321. 

"-  Leaders  of  tJte  Northern  Cliitrcli,  p.  34  :  Brcviar.  Sar.  (Proctor 
and  Wordsworth),  iii.  589. 

^  Cf.  Bede,  ii.  13.  Much  interest  attaches  to  the  history  of  the 
relics  of  King  Oswald.  (This  is  very  fully  dealt  with  by  Mr. 
Plummer,  Bede,  ii.  157-8,  in  a  note  of  splendid  learning  and  con- 
ciseness. I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  here  to  repeat  the  refer- 
ences that  he  gives.  The  later  history  will  be  found  in  Raine's 
S.  C2ithbert,  in  the  Rites  of  Durham  (Surtees  Society),  and  Low's 
Diocesan  History  of  Durham)  The  head,  hands,  and  arms  were 
hung  upon  stakes  by  order  of  the  savage  heathen  Penda,  but  next 
year  Oswiu  recovered  them,  and  buried  the  head  at  Lindisfarne, 
the  hands  and  arms  at  Bamborough  in  a  silver  coffer.  The  head 
was  taken  by  the  monks  in  875  from  Lindisfarne,  when  they  fled  for 
fear  of  the  Danes.  They  placed  it  with  the  relics  of  S.  Cuthbert. 
So  S.  Cuthbert  is  constantly  represented  as  holding  the  head  in  his 
hands.  It  was  preserved  for  awhile  at  Chester  le  Street,  then  at 
Ripon,  then  at  Durham,  where  it  remained  "  inter  brachia  beatis- 


134 


The  English  Saints 


Oswald  was  happy  in  the  successor  to  part  of  his 
kingdom.  Deira,  the  land  of  York,  called  his  nephew 
Oswine^  to  be  its  chief.  "  Comely  and  tall  he  was," 
says  Bede,  "  pleasant  in  speech  and  courteous  in 
manner,  open  of  hand  to  all,  whether  noble  or  unnoble  : 
whence  it  happened  that  all  men  loved  him  for 
his    dignity    of   mind,  and    force,    and   character,  and 


simi  Cuthberti"  till  the  translation  in  1104.  And  when  the  grave 
was  opened  in  1828  the  skull  was  still  with  the  body  of  Cuthbert. 
And  so  again  in  1899.  Roman  Catholic  writers  have  asserted  that 
these  relics  were  stolen  by  members  of  their  communion  and  are 
preserved  by  them.     There  seems  to  be  no  evidence  for  this. 

The  arms  it  is  more  difficult  to  trace.  One  is  said  to  have  been 
stolen  and  taken  to  Peterborough,  and  thence  to  Ely.  One  is  said 
to  have  been  at  Gloucester.  One  was  claimed  for  Durham  : 
which  was  it  ?  Simeon  of  Durham's  informant,  the  old  monk 
Swartebrand,  had  often  seen  it.  Very  likely  the  Peterborough 
thief  was  deceived.  The  body  was  buried  first  at  Oswestry,  it 
would  seem,  but  Oswald's  niece,  Osthryd,  Queen  of  the  Mercians, 
removed  it  to  Bardney,  in  Lindsey,  where  the  jealous  Mercian 
monks,  characteristic  in  their  tribal  feeling,  and  in  the  intense  self- 
absorption  of  Lindsey  men,  would  not  at  first  receive  it.  It  lay  all 
night  in  the  waggon  under  a  tent,  and  a  bright  shining  light  warned 
the  monks  of  the  holiness  of  the  saint,  whereupon  next  day  it  was 
humbly  and  joyfully  received  into  a  shrine.  In  909  Ethelflaed  the 
lady  of  the  Mercians  removed  it  to  the  monastery  she  and  her 
husband  were  building  at  Gloucester  :  and  there  it  remains  to-day, 
as  do  other  precious  relics  of  the  early  English  Kings,  in  the 
cathedral  church  of  S.  Peter.  (So  the  statement  in  the  X.  Century 
Lives,  Anglo-Saxon  and  Latin,  in  Liebermann's  Die  HciUi^cn 
Enf^laiJiis^  pp.  9,  10.) 

Of  the  miracles  of  Oswald  it  is  scarce  necessary  to  speak.  Every 
writer  repeats  them  :  a  horse  cured  on  the  battlefield  where  he  fell, 
a  paralysed  girl  recovered  at  the  same  place,  are  among  the  earliest 
of  a  long  list  which  Bede  records  and  Alcuin  delights  in.  (Bede, 
iii.  9,  etc.     Cf.  Alcuin  in  Historians  of  York,  i.  349  .s^^.) 

^  For  Oswine  see  Zz/i' published  by  Surtees  Society,  1838  :  Noi<a 
Legenda,  ii   268  sqq.     Both  are  ultimately  based  on  Bede. 


The  Royal  Saints  135 

from  all  other  provinces  even  the  greatest  nobles 
flocked  to  be  his  thegns.  Among  his  great  qualities  of 
valour,  and  moderation  and,  if  I  may  so  say,  of  special 
blessedness  greatest  of  all,  it  is  said,  was  his  humility."^ 
The  example  he  gives  brings  us  again  into  the  com- 
pany of  S.  Aidan.  King  Oswine  gave  him  a  horse  to 
use  on  his  journeys  as  bishop,  but  Aidan  very  soon  after 
gave  it  away,  with  all  its  royal  trappings,  to  a  poor 
man  whom  he  met  on  the  road.  When  Oswine  heard 
of  it  he  asked  why  no  other  could  have  been  given 
rather  than  this  which  he  had  chosen  especially  for  the 
bishop :  Aidan  answered,  with  strange  harshness, 
"What  say  you,  O  King?  Is  that  mare's  foal  more 
precious  to  you  than  the  Son  of  God  ?"  Awhile  the 
king  stood  over  the  fire :  then  he  came  to  Aidan, 
whom  he  so  well  knew  and  loved,  and  fell  at  his 
feet  saying,  "  Forgive  me,  for  from  henceforth  I  will 
never  say  more  to  you  of  this,  or  judge  how  much  of 
my  money  you  give  to  the  children  of  God."  Aidan 
burst  into  tears  and  said  to  his  chaplain  in  his  own 
tongue,  which  Oswine  unlike  Oswald  and  Oswiu  could 
not  understand,'  that  the  king,  so  humble,  could  not 
live  long,  for  the  land  was  not  worthy  of  such  a  ruler. 
And  so  it  was.  Oswiu,  ruling  in  Bernicia,  coveted  the 
land  of  his  nephew  Oswine,  and  attacked  him.  Finding 
that  his  army  was  not  strong  enough  to  resist,  Oswine 
disbanded  it,  praying  God  that  he  might  choose  aright 
in  the  difficult  position.  He  then  went  with  a  single 
thegn  to  the  house  of  the  Eorl  Hunwald  who  betrayed 

1  Bede,  iii.  14. 

■'  A  psalter  of  his  "liber  Oswini  regis"  is  in  the  B.  Mus.,  "character- 
ibus  Hibernicis  vetustissimis."    He  cannot  have  been  able  to  read  it. 


136  The  English  Saints 

him  to  Oswiu,  who  sent  word  for  liim  to  be  slain. 
"Your  king's  will  be  done,"  said  Oswine,  "for  it  is 
God's,"  and  signing  himself  with  the  holy  sign  on 
breast  and  mouth,  he  gave  himself  to  death. ^  His 
relics,  working  wonders,  remained  in  the  Benedictine 
house  at  Tynemouth  till  the  spoliation." 

Oswald's  death-day  was  August  5,  642,  Oswine's 
August  20,  651.  ^^'ithin  so  short  a  time  was  the  work 
of  the  two  kings  done.  They  had  confirmed  the 
Christianity  of  Northumbria.  It  remained  for  later 
sovereigns  to  bring  the  land  into  union  with  the  usages 
of  the  West.  The  fame  of  Os^^•ald  never  decayed  : 
Oswine's  memory  was  re\'ived  b}'  the  monks  of  T}'ne- 
mouth  on  the  eve  of  the  Norman  Conquest.  Men 
looked  to  them  both,  and  their  intercession,  when  evil 
was  wrought  in  their  land,  and  the  good  laws  were  set 
at  naught.  To-day  they  may  both  well  be  remem- 
bered for  their  simple,  sincere,  manh-  Christianit}', 
strangely  humble  and  yet  bra^•e  beyond  dispute.''     I^ede 

'    Vihi  Os7i<lni  (Surtecs  Society),  p.  11. 

-'  In  the  Vita  Oswini  there  is  a  strange  story  of  Iiis  miraculous 
intervention  which  illustrates  the  terrible  sins  into  which  clerks 
sometimes  fell  in  the  XI.  century. 

•'  Miss  Arnold- Forster,  Studies  in  Clnitch  Dedications,  ii.  321, 
well  writes  of  the  consecration  of  the  church  of  S.  Oswine  at 
Wylam-on-Tyne  :  "And  thus  after  two  centuries  of  neglect, 
S.  Oswine  is  again  remembered  in  the  valley  where  once  he  was 
so  famous.  The  old  feeling  of  admiration  for  him  is  revived,  but 
with  a  difference  In  the  Middle  Ages  he  was  venerated  on 
account  of  the  miracles  that  were  said  to  have  been  done  by  the 
power  of  his  name  :  now  we  put  aside  these  miracles,  and  look 
back  behind  the  unreal  Oswine  of  the  monkish  tales  to  the 
humble-minded,  manly  king  of  Hcde's  plain  narrative;  and  none 
the  less — nay,  rather  all  the  more —we  find  Iiim  worthy  to  be  com- 
memorated." 


The  Royal  Saints  137 

did  no  better  work  than  when  he  preserved  the  memor\' 
of  these  two  noble  kings. 

One  noble  parallel  at  least  is  to  be  found  among 
later  English  sovereigns.  Edmund  king  of  the  East 
English  is  still  commemorated  on  many  a  screen,  and 
in  the  dedication  of  many  a  church/  among  the  people 
for  whose  example  he  died.  His  life  has  been  overlaid 
with  legend  and  his  memory  with  miracle.  But  facts 
emerge  from  the  cloud  of  patriotic  fancies  which 
account  for  the  reverence  that  has  been  paid  for  ages 
to  the  simple  heroic  king.  Church  history  is  full  of 
these  pictures  of  heroism,  where  kings  and  simple  folk, 
brave  women  and  young  children,  went  fearlessly  to 
death  because  they  would  not  tarnish  the  purity  of 
their  faith.  It  may  be  man}-  of  the  stories  are  largely 
mythical,  but  the  religious  consciousness  comes  forward 
to  help  us  to  separate  the  myth  from-  fact.  Did  the 
men  die  for  something  worth  dying  for  ?  God,  duty  : 
there  have  never  been  lacking  martyrs  for  these.  And 
among  them  there  is  no  clearer  image  than  that  of 
S.  Edmund. 

King  Edmund  was  contemporary  with  Alfred,-  and 

^  Sixty-one  churches  are  dedicated  to  him,  besides  tliose  in 
which  his  name  is  joined  with  other  saints  :  see  Arnold-Forster, 
S/ud/c-s  in  Clucrch  Dcdicatioiis,  vol.  ii.  300,  327. 

-'  For  no  English  Saint  is  there  more  biographical  material  ;  but 
most  of  it  has  no  value  higher  than  a  possible  tradition.  In  the 
English  Chronicle  and  Asser  his  tale  is  briefly  told.  Abbo  of 
Fleury  adds  to  it  considerably.  Hardy,  Descriptive  Catalogue  oj 
ilfSS.,  i.  526-538,  gives  a  full  listof  MSS.  lives  ;  but^/".  Liebermann, 
Ungedruckie  Anglo-Nonnavnische  Gcschichisqiiellen.  The  Passio 
by  Abbo,  the  Dc  Miraciilis  of  Geoffrey  de  Fontibus,  and  Abbat 
Samson's  Opus  de  Miraciilis  S.  Edm.  are  printed  by  Mr.  T.  Arnold 
in  vol.  i.  of  the  Memorials  of  S.  Edmunds  Abbey  (Rolls  Series, 


138  The  English  Saints 

Alfred's  biographer  tells  the  tale  of  his  gallant  struggle 
very  briefly,  for  probably  he  knew  little  of  what  passed 
in  East  Anglia,  cut  off  from  Wessex  by  forest  and 
marsh  and  by  the  conquests  of  the  Danes.  In  the 
winter  of  870  the  Danes  stayed  at  Thetford,  and  in 
that  year  "  Edmund  King  of  the  East  Angles  fought 
against  that  same  host  a  glorious  fight.  But  alack 
the  heathen  won  all  too  gloriously :  and  there 
was  he  slain  and  the  most  of  his  men  with  him," 
says  Asser :  and  the  English  chronicle,  which  adds 
the  names  of  the  Danish  chiefs,  says  that  they 
slew  the  king^  and  brought  all  the  land  under 
and  broke  down  all  the  minsters  that  ever  they 
came  to. 

But  we  have  details  of  S.  Edmund's  life  and  death 
which  have  much  more  claim  to  be  authentic. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  tenth    century,  while   the 

1890).  Langtoft  (Rolls  Series),  i.  312  sqg.,  poetizes  the  story  with 
some  curious  additions.  The  A'o7'a  Lcgeiida  A?i_^l/cp,  pp.  573^188, 
contains  a  highly  interesting  composite  life  with  a  full  collection  of 
miracles.  Lord  Francis  Hervey  in  his  notes  to  Reyce's  Breviary 
of  Stiffolk,  1618,  pp.  272-285,  analyses  and  criticizes  the  authorities 
very  cleverly,  l)ut,  as  regards  Abbo,  I  think,  with  unnecessary 
scepticism. 

In  regard  to  the  Nova  Legeiida  we  may  note  the  MS.  Tiberius 
addition  to  the  life  of  S.  Edmund,  the  account  of  the  history  of 
the  lilood  of  Hayles.  This  may  be  compared  with  the  Hayles 
Chronicle  in  the  Harleian  MS.  3725,  and  should  be  read  by  those 
who  would  supplement  the  meagre  article  on  the  subject  l^y 
Mr.  St.  Clair  Haddeley  in  the  Transactio77s  of  the  Bristol  and 
Gloucestershire  Archcrological  Society,  vol.  xxiii.,  part  2. 

'  I'one  cyning  ofslogon.  "This  is  quite  compatible,"  says 
Mr.  I'lummer  {Tivo  Saxon  Chronicles,  ii.  86),  "with  Edmund's 
having  fallen  in  battle.''  I5ut  the  tale  of  Abbo  is  so  little  later  tliat 
we  may  accept  it. 


The  Royal  Saints  139 

great  Dunstan  still  sat  on  the  throne  of  S.  Augustine,^ 
Abbo  a  monk  of  Fleury,  where  the  archbishop  had 
himself  spent  years  of  exile,  came  to  England  as  a 
guest  of  the  primate,  heard  him  tell  the  story  of 
S.  Edmund's  life,  and  wrote  it  down  for  the  monks 
of  Ramsey."  Dunstan  himself  was  separated  only  by 
fifty  years  from  the  time  of  the  martyr,  and  he  had 
heard,  as  a  lad,  the  story  from  the  lips  of  an  aged  man 
who  had  borne  the  king's  armour  on  the  day  of  his 
death. 

It  is  a  simple  tale.  Edmund  was  from  a  child  a 
Christian.  He  was  of  old  Saxon  race,  of  those  (as 
some  interpreted  the  words  of  Abbo)-^  who  still  dwelt  in 
the  lands  whence  the  invaders  had  come  to  Britain 
four  centuries  before.  Ties  were  still  close,  and 
Edmund  was  chosen  king  of  the  East  Angles,  when 
he  was  scarcely  more  than  a  child.  Legends  crowd 
the  history  of  his  youth  and  give  romantic  stories  of 
the  way  in  which  he  won  the  crown  :  but  it  is  not 
impossible  that  he  was  of  foreign  birth  and  elected  to 
an    English    kingship.'*     He    was    a  strong  warrior,   a 

1  Three  years  before  his  death,  says  the  EngHsh  Sermon  on 
S.  Edmund,  MS.  Bodl.  343. 

■'  See  Memorials  of  S.  Edm.  Abbey,  i.  3,  4:  Memorials  of 
Dunstan,  378-380. 

"^  "  Ex  antiquorum  Saxonum  nobih  prosapia  oriundus."  S.  Boni- 
face used  to  say  of  the  old  Saxon  and  the  EngHsh  "  De  uno 
sanguine  et  de  uno  esse  sumus,"  Ep.  39  (Jafife,  Monnm.  Mogunt., 
p.  107).     See  Hauck,  Kirchengeschichte,  I.  433. 

^  Geofifrey  de  Fontibus  tells  a  long  tale  of  his  predecessor  Ofta, 
not  to  be  confused  he  very  carefully  says  with  the  great  OfFa  the 
Mercian  tyrant — the  East  Anglian  hatred  of  the  Mercians  long 
survived — visiting  the  old  home  of  his  race  and  staying  with 
Alchmund,  King  of  the  old  Saxons.     When  he  lay  dying  after  his 


140  The  English  Saints 

Christian  of  quiet  faith.  Men  looked  up  to  him  for  his 
courage,  his  fair  face,  and  his  fairer  fame  :  he  Hved 
a  simple  life,  as  the  kings  of  those  times  lived,  a 
shepherd  of  his  poor  people,  like  the  great  Alfred  his 
contemporary.  He  studied  to  protect  his  land,  and  he 
gave  good  heed  to  the  making  of  just  laws :  he  was 
just,  the  father  of  orphans,  the  protector  of  widows, 
kind  to  the  simple  and  needy.  So  he  lived  in  peace 
till  there  burst  over  his  land  a  storm  of  in\asion  which 
swept  away  the  armies,  the  civilization,  the  religion 
of  the  people.^  The  English  Chronicle,  and  the  record 
of  Abbo,  give  in  their  story  of  this  some  of  the  earliest 
accounts  of  the  fearful  ravages  of  the  heathen  hordes. 
The  burning  of  to\\ns,  the  murder — and  \\orse — of 
women  and  children,  the  torture  of  captured  ^^•arriors, 
are  features  in  what  soon  became  a  too  familiar  story. 
We  are  told  too  of  the  special  features  of  the  Danish 
warfare,  which  added  to  the  terrors  of  the  time.  Lying 
at  wait  in  their  ships  at  the  mouths  of  the  little  rivers 
they  would  land  at  nightfall  and  creep  over  the  marshes 
to  ravage  some  unprotected  homestead,  springing,  says 
the  chronicler,  who  well  knew  the  force  of  his  simile, 
like  the  wolf  of  the  evening  upon  his  prey."-^ 

To  this  picture  of  desolation  later  wTiters  add  many 
details,   gleaned   there    is    no    reason    to    doubt    from 


return,  he  charged  liis  men  to  have  Edmund  for  their  kin^.  'I"he 
])rophecy  of  a  Roman  matron,  given  entirely  to  piety,  convinced 
King-  Alchmund.  and  he  consented  to  his  son's  departure.  Mem. 
S.  Ediii.,  i.  94-98.  No  names  of  E.  Anglian  kings  are  known 
between  Ethelberht  794(?)  whom  Ofifa  beheaded,  and  S.  Edmund. 

'  A  fine  folk- tale  is  told  of  how  they  came,  of  the  Danish  prisoner, 
the  wicked  forester  and  the  faithful  greyhound. 

-  AJDbo,  in  Mem.  S.  Edm.,  i.  10,  11. 


The  Royal  Saints  141 

memories  that  wouJd  not  soon  pass  away  and  from 
authentic  histories  of  other  Danish  incursions.^  They 
burnt  the  houses  of  God,  and  they  spared  not  the 
women  consecrated  to  His  service,  and  one  monastic 
writer,  to  pile  up  the  horror,  brings  into  it  a  revolting 
story  of  Ebba,  abbess  of  Coldingham,  who  had  been 
dead  at  least  a  hundred  years.- 

Edmund  fought  stoutly  for  his  people,  but  step  by 
step  he  was  beaten  back  and  hemmed  in.  Then  at 
last,  when  he  was  to  fight  for  life  and  freedom,  the 
Danish  chieftains  offered  to  spare  him  if  he  would  rule 
his  people  under  them.  It  is  doubtful  even  if  they 
asked  him  to  deny  Christ :  but  it  is  certain  (if  Abbo's 
tale  be  accepted,  and  it  comes  on  the  evidence  of 
Dunstan  and  the  old  East  Anglian)  that  they  would 
have  spared  his  life  if  he  would  have  admitted  their 
overlordship  and  have  continued  to  watch  over  his  land, 
now  under  Danish  sway.  Very  likely  the  curious  reason- 
ing between  him  and  his  bishop  in  which  the  prelate 
would  have  him  yield,  is,  as  Abbo^  tells  it  to  us,  a 
fiction  ;  but  no  doubt  the  arguments  which  the  king  is 
made  to  use  are  such  as  would  be  really  present  to  his 
mind.  "  God  is  my  witness  that  whether  alive  or  dead 
nothing  shall  separate  me  from  the  love  of  Christ.  By 
the  unction  of  my  crowning  I  am  thrice  pledged  to  the 
faith  of  the  eternal  Trinity.  By  the  baptismal  robe,  by 
the  apostolic  sign  of  confirmation,  and  by  the  bishop's 
hallowing  and  the  acclamation  of  the  common  people, 
I  am  thrice  vowed  to  God,  for  the  service  of  this  realm. 
The  heathen  promises  life  :  I  care  not  for  it:  a  kingdom 

1  See  Nova  Lcgcnda  Angluc,  ii.  580-2.  -  Ibid.,  ii.  582. 

^  Abbo,  in  M./n.  S.  Edin.,  11-12. 


142  The  English  Saints 

— that  I  have  :  riches,  I  do  not  need  them.  Shall  I 
serve  two  masters,  I  who  am  pledged  solely  to  the 
service  of  Jesus  Christ  ?"  Then  with  that  wonderful 
boldness  \\hich  has  saved  many  men  at  a  crisis, 
Edmund  declared  that  he  would  serve  the  Dane  only 
if  he  would  serve  Christ. 

There  was  a  last  battle,  or  maybe  a  night  surprise. 
Edmund  was  captured,  bound  to  a  tree,  scourged, 
made  a  target  for  the  Danish  arrows.  All  through  his 
agonies  he  called  upon  Christ ;  and  when  at  last  the 
long  torture  did  not  stay  his  prayers,  the  heathen 
chieftain  bade  men  strike  off  his  head.  "  So,"  says 
Abbo,  "on  the  twelfth  day  from  the  kalends  of  De- 
cember, as  a  sacrifice  well  pleasing  to  God,  Edmund, 
tried  as  by  fire,  entered  with  the  palm  of  victory  and 
the  crown  of  righteousness,  king  and  martyr,  among 
the  senate — the  witan — of  the  heavenly  court. '"^ 

Stripped  of  the  tawdry  trappings  of  legend  it  is  a 
noble  story.  The  intense  reverence  which  the  people 
felt  for  centuries  for  this  last  of  the  East  Anglian 
kings  was  founded  on  a  knowledge  of  how  truly  his 
martyrdom  was  for  their  sakes.  His  death,  he  thought, 
might  save  his  people :  he  could  not  live  to  sanction 
the  rule  of  oppressors.  If  he  did  not  die  for  his  faith, 
he  died  most  certainly,  as  did  S.  Alphege  of  Canter- 
bury, for  his  duty.  God  had  given  him  his  people  :  he 
could  not  betray  his  trust.  The  simple  words  of  Abbo 
are  enshrined  in  the  Sarum  Breviary.  A  short  life,- 
a  life  merely  of  duty  that  became  heroic ;  and  so  the 

^  Memorials  of  S.  Edin.  Abbey,  i.  15-16. 

-  Abbo  says  that  he  died  in  the  39th  \'earof  liis  age  and  the  15th 
of  his  reign. 


The  Royal  Saints  143 

king,  in  the  prime  of  youth  and  strength,  went  cheer- 
fully to  God. 

We  cannot  wonder  that  legends  gathered  round  the 
story.  Abbo  compared  the  martyrdom  to  that  of 
S.  Sebastian,  who  was  thus  slain  in  the  persecution 
of  Diocletian,^  and  told  how  after  death  he  was  be- 
headed and  his  body  left  in  a  wood  where  Christians 
knew  of  it  and  when  peace  came  sought  to  recover  it. 
The  body  was  easily  found,  but  the  head  only  when  a 
voice  was  heard  crying  "  Here,  here,  here,"  which 
guided  them  to  where  a  great  wolf  sat  holding  the 
sacred  relic  between  his  paws.  So  they  carried  it  with 
tears  and  hymns  to  God,  the  wolf  following,  and  then 
going  back  to  the  forest  without  harming  any  man. 
For  many  years'-^  it  rested  at  Hoxon^:  then  a  church 
was  built  at  Beodricsworth^  which  came  in  later  times 
to  be  called  Bury  S.  Edmund's,  for  the  custody  of  the 
body,  which,  men  said,  was  like  that  of  S.  Cuthbert 
incorrupt,^  and  where  now  the  head  showed  only  a  red 

1  See  S.  Ambrose,  Enarr.  in  Psalm  118,  Nidii.  44. 

-  On  the  divergence  as  to  time  see  Mr.  Arnold's  preface, 
Memorials  of  S.  Edin.  Abbey,  p.  xxi. 

•''  Or  at  Sutton,  Liebermann,  Ungedruckte  A.  N.  Gcsch.^  p.  203. 

•*  Ethelweard,  p.  513.     Abbo,  Memorials  S.  E.  A.,  p.  19. 

^  This  was  ascribed  to  his  virginity,  Nova  Legenda,  ii.  592.  The 
curious  correspondence  in  the  Times  during  August  and  September 
1 901  as  to  the  bones  which  were  brought  to  England  as  the  gift  of 
Pope  Leo  XIII.  to  the  Roman  Catholic  cathedral  church  in  West- 
minster deserves  mention.  Its  result  was  the  proof,  complete  so 
far  as  proof  in  such  a  case  could  possibly  be,  that  the  gift  described 
as  the  bones  of  S.  Edmund,  King  and  Martyr,  could  not  be 
authentic.  The  letters  of  Dr.  Montague  Rhodes  James  and  of  Sir 
Ernest  Clarke  are  worth  preserving  ;  and  a  curious  interest 
attaches  to  the  letters  of  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Mackinlay,  O.S.B.,  and  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Francis  A.  Gasquet.     It  does  not  appear  that  the  Roman 


144 


Thi-:  English  Saints 


line  where  it  had  been  severed.     His  day  was  observed 
on  November  20  with  great  veneration.^ 

At  tirst  S.  Edmund  was  honoured  in  his  own  district 
only  ;  and  even  two  hundred  years  after  his  death  he 
was  regarded  especially  as  the  defender  of  East  Anglia.- 
But  soon  he  became  notably  the  patron  of  seafaring 
men,^  the  fisher  folk  and  traders  of  the  East  Coast  and 


Catholic  authorities  have  decided  whether  tlie  bones,  sent  as  those 
of  S.  Edmund,  are  his  or  those  of  another  S.  Edmund,  or  those  of 
a  person  unknown. 

^  See  Whytford's  Martilogc,  ]>.  181.  "In  England  the  feast  of 
Saint  Edmund  King  and  mart>r,  that  by  the  King  and  tyrant 
Hungware  and  certain  Danes  that  with  him  invaded  the  realm 
was  taken  and  bound  to  a  tree,  scourged  naked,  and  then  shot  full 
of  arrows,  and  at  the  last  headed." 

-  So  Liebermann,  in  his  Introduction  to  Hcrcinaimi  Mir.  ii. 
Eadinundi  in  his  Ungedruckte  anglo-iiorinannischc  GcschklUs- 
qucllcn.  Cf.  ^  3.  (L.  233)  "nostro  patrono."  j  4.  (Martene  824  C.) 
"  in  dioecesi  qua  noster  veneratur  sanctus."  ^  6.  (Martene  826  C. — 
828  D.)  Inhabitants  of  Bury  S.  Edmund's  implore  the  saint's  help 
against  Sweyen's  unjust  imposts,  and  he  helps  them.  §  8.  (L.  p.  234). 
"  Vorax  invasio  decennalis  fuit  Anglis  detestanda  confusio,  preter 
fines  Orientales,  sancti  Eadmundi  protectione  vigentes."  J.e.,  Ed- 
mund protected  E.  Anglia  during  the  Danish  invasions.  §  53. 
(L.  p.  264)  a  Norman  from  Herefordshire  is  brought  "ad  eundem 
piissimum  protectorem  nostrum  [Eadmundum]"  to  be  healed. 
§  57.  "  Noster  protector." 

^  The  following  instance  of  S.  Edmund  being  invoked  at  sea  is 
given  Ijy  Hercmann.  A  certain  knight,  named  Normann(us),  was 
wearing  round  his  neck  a  phylactery  (amulet)  brought  from  the 
monastery  of  Bury  S.  Edmund's.  He  was  bringing  it  to  Nor- 
mandy by  command  and  for  the  use  of  Abbat  Baldwin  of  Bury 
S.  Edmund's,  William  I.'s  physician.  The  ship,  though  a  large 
one,  carrying  nearly  60  men,  besides  36  beasts  and  16  horses  laden 
with  merchandise,  was  in  danger  of  shipwreck.  Goods  and  horses 
were  thrown  overboard,  but  Normannus  kept  his  charger.  On  the 
morning  of  the  third  day  a  beautiful  figure  appeared  in  vision  to 
Normannus  while  he  slept  and  commanded  him  to  remember  the 


The  Royal  Saints  145 

through  them  the  seamen  of  the  whole  isle.     Thus  his 
fame  was  spread  over  Europe. 

Meanwhile  miracles  had  long  begun  :  men  who  tried 
to  rob  the  shrine  were  fixed  hand  and  foot  by  the  power 
of  the  saint,  in  the  most  uncomfortable  positions,  and 
were  by  the  bishop  delivered  to  be  hanged  :  an  act 
which  he  sincerely  repented.^  A  rude  and  powerful 
thegn  demanding  to  see  the  relics  was  struck  with 
madness,  abandoned  by  his  father  and  eaten  of  worms. 
And  Abbo  ends  by  saying  that  there  are  many  more 
miracles  he  could  tell  of,  but  for  fear  of  prolixity.     He 


phylactery  he  was  wearing  and  call  on  God.  Then  Normannus 
stood  up,  took  the  phylactery  in  his  hands,  and  he  and  the 
governor  of  the  ship  prayed  to  God  and  St.  Edmund.  Then 
the  sea  became  calm,  to  the  joy  of  Normannus,  who  perceived 
the  virtue  of  the  name  with  which  the  phylactery  was  inscribed, 
though,  being  a  layman,  he  did  not  know  what  it  was  he  was 
carrying.  "  Gaudet  Normannus  jam  suis  salvatis  rebus,  qui  si 
nescit,  ut  laicus,  quid  collo  gestaverit,  tamen  ejus  virtutem  percipit, 
cujus  insignitum  nomine  fuerit.  Adest  in  mare  martyr  Eadmundus, 
prodest  in  eo  periclitantibus,  ut  olim  nautis  tempestate  quassatis 
beatus  Nicholaus  :  clamantibus  illis  sanctum  Nicholaum,  apparet 
quidam  dicens  :  'Ecce  adsum.'"  Hercmanni  Mir.  S.  Eadinundi, 
i  50.  Liebermann,  pp.  261-263.  The  MS.  oi  Heremaniti  Mir.  S. 
Eadmimdihx&^k%  off  abruptly  in  the  middle  of  an  account  of  help 
rendered  by  the  saint  in  the  night  of  16  and  17  May  [1096J  to 
people  returning  by  ship  to  England  from  Rome.  (Liebermann, 
Ufigedruckte  anglo-norinannische  GescJiichtsquellen^  p.  281,  Here- 
7nanni  Mir.  S.  Eadmundi,  §  67.)  Liebermann  notes  how  well 
known  to  English  writers  was  the  translation  of  S.  Nicholas  from 
Myra  to  Bari  in  1087  by  the  Normans  of  South  Italy. 

^  Abbo,  p.  22.  "  Canonica  auctoritas  prohibet  ne  quis  epis- 
copus  aut  quilibet  de  clero  delatoris  fungatur  officio,  quoniam 
satis  dedecet  ministros  vit^e  coelestis  assensum  praebere  in  mortem 
cujuslibet  hominis,"  The  passage  is  of  considerable  interest  in 
regard  to  later  conflicts  about  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction. 

10 


146  Thi:  English   Saints 

doubts  not — nor  can  any  man — of  the  blessedness  of 
Edmund  in  the  j;loiy  of  God.  Others  were  not  so 
reticent.  Ijy  the  time  the  legend  came  into  the  liands 
of  John  of  T}ncmouth^  wonders  were  multitudinous. 
The  famous  abbat  Samson  of  Bury — and  he  N\as  not 
the  first  or  the  last — had  put  forth  a  great  book  of 
miracles,  which  the  later  writer  freely  adapted  and 
enlarged.  In  the  centuries  that  had  gone  by  the  shrine 
of  S.  Edmund  had  become  one  of  the  glories  of  Eng- 
land, for  he,  with  S.  Cuthbert  and  S.  Thomas  of 
Canterbury,  was  one  of  the  three  most  popular  saints, 
and  abroad  as  in  England  his  fame  was  unfading.  The 
Icelanders  knew  of  him,  and  told  in  Saga,  as  they  told 
of  S.  Thomas.-  "  In  all  the  long  line  of  royal  saints 
there  is  scarce  one  who  has  enjoyed  for  so  long  an 
European  veneration."''  Those  who  mocked,  and  a 
sheriff  who  refused  to  allow  to  a  criminous  lady  the 
benefit  of  clergy,'*  and  turned  up  his  nose  (says  John  of 
Tynemouth)  at  the  miracles  came  to  a  bad  end.'"'  During 
the  later  Danish  raids  the  body  was  moved  to  London, 
and  miracles  "  prevented  its  becoming  a  prey  to  the 
pious  cupidity  of  the  Londoners."'' 

In  1095''  it  was  solemnly  translated  to  the  new  and 

'  Nova  Lcgcnda,  ii.  590,  assigns  a  passage  to  Abbo  which  cer- 
tainly was  not  written  by  him.  John  of  Tynemouth  used  his 
editorial  powers  very  freely.  Cf.  the  story  of  Leofstan  in  his  telling 
and  Abljo's. 

-  Cf  Corpus  Pflcticuiii  Borcale,  ii.  339. 

^  Lappenberg,  Hist.  0/ Anglo-Saxons^  E.  Trans.,  i.  306. 

''  Hermann,  in  Memorials  S.  E.  A.,  i.  31. 

•'  "Audita  illius  miracula  contracta  nare  subsannaljat,"  Nm'a 
Legenda,  ii.  593.     This  is  an  editorial  addition. 

6  Mr.  Arnold  in  Introduction,  Memorials,  etc.,  ]).  xiii. 

^  April  29,  Whytford  Mariilogc,  p.  65. 


The  Royal  Saints  147 

splendid  shrine  of  which  the  miracles  became  the 
brightest  glory.  Devils  trembled :  the  dumb  spake  : 
Osgod  Clapa,  King  Edward  Confessor's  staller,  was 
ast  upon  the  pavement  of  the  Church  by  a  demon's 
hand  for  his  insolent  pride  in  presence  of  the  relics^: 
abusive  and  profane  boys  of  high  rank  suffered  severely: 
Robert  de  Curzon  in  the  time  of  Rufus  desiring  to  seize 
the  manor  of  Southwold'-^  the  property  of  the  abbey 
was  driven  back  by  a  tremendous  storm  and  his  knights 
foolishly  persisting  were  struck  with  madness,^  and  his 
son  reviving  it  became  a  raving  lunatic  till  he  gave 
it  up :  a  servant  who  lost  the  rents  he  had  collected 
recovered  them  with  great  joy — but  this  story,  says 
Samson,  is  not  verified.^  So  up  to  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century — William  Bishop  of  Norwich  was 
checked  in  his  illegal  incursions  by  the  power  of  the 
Saint,'''  and  a  chapel  at  Wainfleet  owed  its  restoration 
to  the  intervention  of  the  saint  himself. 

What  a  pitiable  change  from  the  noble  story  of 
courage  and  steadfast  faith  to  the  credulity,  and  super- 
stition, and  greediness,  and  perhaps  fraud,  of  later 
days.     It  is  a  sad  example  of  the  results  of  the  venera- 

1  The  story  is  given  by  Hermann,  J/cw.  S.  E.  A.,  54-6,  and 
Samson,  z'lfiW.,  135-136:  Nova  Legetida,  609-10.  See  Englisli 
Chronicle,  Earle  and  Plummer,  ii.  226-7. 

■-  Not  South  Waltham,  as  editors  have  conjectured. 

2  This  story  is  in  Samson  and  in  Nova  Legejida,  ii.  621,  637-8, 
with  additions  from  other  MSS.  The  date  is  given  as  1087  by 
Bodleian  MS.  240. 

*  "  Sed  rei  modum  investigare  non  Hcuit,  verum  se  sua  sancti 
mentis  recepisse  palam  omnibus  nuntiavit.  Hujus  relationis  nee 
verum  supprimimus,  nee  pro  veritate  mendacium  concinnamus." 
P.  186. 

^  He,  William  Bateman,  was  bishop  from  1344  to  1356. 

JO — 3 


148  The  English  Saints 

tion  of  saints.  From  a  devotion  it  passed  into  a  trade  : 
and  supported  by  every  licence  of  the  papal  curia^  it 
became  part  of  a  system  which  was  tainted  through 
and  through.  Yet  the  old  true  reverence,  it  cannot  be 
doubted,  still  lingered,  in  spite  of  corruption  ;  and  when 
men  tell  stories  of  miracles  they  aKva}'s  assume  that 
the  king  himself  was  ever  a  patron  of  the  right.  If 
monks  called  on  him  to  aid  them  in  contests  of  mere 
acquisitiveness,  or  sick  folk  bemoaned  themselves  till 
his  aid  cured  their  trivial  ailments,  still  Englishmen 
remembered  Edmund  as  the  soldier  and  true  king,  as 
shepherd  of  his  people  and  martyr  for  the  faith  of 
Christ.  Time  passed,  storms  vexed  state  and  church, 
and  still  the  lesson  of  King  Edmund's  life  was  read  to 
inspire  those  who  sat  on  the  throne  of  the  old  English 

kings. 

"  Ore  oyez;  Cristiene  gent, 
X'lis  qui  en  Dieu  Omnipotent 
Auez  e  fey  e  esperance 
E  de  salvacium  fiance."- 

There  is  one  great  man  among  our  early  kings 
whom  soldiers  and  scholars,  Christians  and  Positivists, 
have  in  modern  days  united  to  honour,  and  whose 
name  in  his  own  age  was  famous  far  and  wide,  who 
yet  has  never  been  admitted  among  canonized  saints, 
Alfred  the  Truthteller.^ 

There  is  much   that   is  legendary  about    this   great 

1  Cf.  Nova  Legenda,  ii.  573-5,  bulls  of  Innocent  I\'.,  which  in 
themselves  are  lofty  and  reverent :  Init  the  results  were  vcrN- 
different. 

-  13th  century  Life  of  S.  KdminuU  V>.  Mus.,  Cotton  MS.  Domit. 
A.  \i.  f.  I.  Tiie  life  was  written  by  Denis  Tiramus  to  amuse 
Ilcnry  III.  on  a  voyage. 

■■'  The  piirase  is  in  the  Chrnn.  of  S.  Ncot,  Man.  //is/,  /hit.,  p.  49S. 


The  Royal  Saints  149 

hero.  The  story  of  his  learning  to  read  Latin  when 
he  had  been  so  far  illiterate  up  to  his  twelfth  year  has 
many  difficulties,  some  of  them  due  to  the  scholars 
who  have  tried  to  investigate  it,  but  it  is  just  such  a 
memory  as  Alfred  might  well  have  of  his  youth  and 
tell  to  his  friend  and  bishop  Asser.^  Perhaps  he  may 
himself  have  made  two  stories  into  one  when  he  looked 
back  on  his  childhood."  The  tale  of  a  vision  of 
S.  Cuthbert,^  confused  though  it  is,  may  very  likely  be 
the  record  of  a  dream  which  inspired  the  West  Saxon 
king.  To  one  who  knew  and  loved  the  English  saints 
there  might  well  seem  to  come  a  promise  of  help  and 
victory  from  the  apostle  of  the  Northumbrians.*  These 
and  other  stories  whether  we  accept  them  or  not  are 
evidence  of  the  true  character  of  the  man.  So  the  tale 
of  the  cakes  would  not  be  told  of  any  but  a  kindly 
humorous  person,  or  that  of  the  adventure  in  the  Danish 
camp  "  sub  specie  mimi "  of  one  who  was  not  alert  and 
daring,  or  that  of  the  golden  bracelets  hung  up  at  the 
cross  roads  of  an}-  time  when  the  king  was  not  a  lover 

^  The  subject  has  been  investigated  thoroughly  by  Mr.  Plummer, 
Life  and  Times  of  Alfred,  pp.  84  sqq.^  and  by  many  great  scholars, 
Dr.  Stubbs,  Mr.  Freeman,  the  Bishop  of  Bristol  and  others. 
Professor  W.  E.  Collins,  London  Quarterly  Review,  Jan.,  1902, 
strangely  regards  it  as  one  to  be  "rejected  without  hesitation."  I 
cannot  agree  with  those  who  repudiate  Mr.  Freeman's  suggestion 
as  impossible. 

^  This  view  would  remove  the  few  difficulties  left  after  Mr- 
Plummer's  exhaustive  treatment. 

^  W.  Malmesbury,  Gesta  Regum,  i.  126. 

^  Professor  Earle,  The  Alfred  Jewel,  1901,  pp.  74,  177-180,  regards 
the  whole  story  as  "a  transparent  fraud,"  and  thinks  that  the 
figure  on  the  famous  icon  is  symbolical,  "to  represent  the  papal 
authority  as  the  vicar  and  vicegerent  of  Christ." 


150  The  English  Saints 

and  a  keeper  of  good  peace. ^  Alfred  indeed  was  a  true 
English  hero.  He  was  a  warrior  of  capacity  almost 
unicjuc  for  his  times"-:  he  was  a  lawgixer  if  not  among 
the  greatest  yet  among  the  most  beneficent,  an 
organizer  of  justice  as  he  was  an  organizer  of  victory'^ ; 
he  was  a  scholar  with  the  real  enthusiasm  of  a  student^; 
but  most  of  all  he  was  one  who  simply  loved  and 
followed  Christ.  Asser's  Life  has  been  taken  as  a 
portraiture  too  much  idealized  to  truly  represent  a 
living  character,  and  as  rather  "an  ^Elfred  of  tradition 
than  of  history'^;  but  the  idealization  is  onl\- that  of 
love  and  memory.  Alfred  was  a  true  hero :  and  no 
life  that  has  ever  been  worthily  written  of  such  an  one 
fails  to  idealize.  That  is  the  secret  of  a  true  under- 
standing, no  less  than  it  is  the  clue  to  the  medieval 
science  of  hagiology.  "  My  will  was  to  live  worthih, , 
as  long  as  1  lived,  and  after  my  life  to  leave  to  them 
that  should  come  after  m}-  memory  in  good  works  ': 
so  he  added  when  he  was  translating  Boethius.  "  And 
no  man  may  do  aught  of  good  unless  God  work  \vith 

'  1 1  is  not  nct:essary  to  go  into  tlie  iiutlienticity  of  Asser  or  the 
relation  to  it  of  the  legends  of  S.  Neot,  for  Mr.  I'lunimer  lias 
finally  settled  the  question  relating  to  both  in  his  Life  lUid  Tiiiics 
of  Alfred. 

■^  See  Professor  Oman  in  Alfred  the  Great  (Bowkcr).  \)\i.  i  i  5-1 48, 
Rev.  W.  H.  Simco.x,  Alfred's  Year  of  Battles,  Englisli  Jlistorical 
Review.,  vol.  i.,  p.  128  sqq. 

■*  Liebermann,  Gcsetzc  der  An^L^'t'lsai/ise/i ;  Turk,  TIw  lesj^irl  code  of 
Alfred  the  Great;  see  also  Plummer,  pp.  121  scjq.  ;  Sir  F.  I'ollock 
in  Alfred  the  Great  (Bowker),  and  Mr.  ¥.  Seebohm's  recent  Atij^Io- 
Saxon  Law  and  Custom. 

*  See  Bishop  of  Bristol  and  Professor  Earle  in  Alfred  the  Great 
(as  above),  and  Plummer,  Lectures  \ .  and  \T. 

•'  Professor  W.  E.  Ccjllins  in  the  Lo/nlo/i  Quarterly  Re'<'ie-iL\]-AW.., 
iyo2,  p.  81. 


The  Royal  Saints 


^51 


him.  And  yet  no  one  should  be  idle  and  not  attempt 
something  in  proportion  to  the  powers  which  God 
gives  him  "  :  so  he  wrote  when  he  was  paraphrasing 
S.  Augustine.  They  are  true  expressions  of  the  prin- 
ciples that  ruled  his  own  life,  and  the  lives  of  the 
English  statesmen  kings.  He  guided  himself  by  the 
love  of  Christ :  the  little  book  of  hours  and  of  prayers 
and  ejaculations  that  he  made  for  himself  was  always 
in  his  bosom/  and  so,  as  writes  the  northern  chronicler 
who  revived  his  fame  for  later  days,  "  all  alone  strove 
he,  by  the  help  of  Almighty  God,  like  a  skilful  steers- 
man, so  to  sway  the  helm  as  to  bring  his  ship,  his  own 
glorious  and  living  soul,  into  the  harbour  and  the  calm 
and  peace  of  Paradise."- 

"  Alfred  the  King  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,"  wrote 
Florence  of  Worcester,  "  the  famous,  the  warlike,  the 
victorious,  the  careful  provider  for  the  widow,  the  help- 
less, the  orphan,  and  the  poor ;  the  most  skilled  of 
Saxon  poets,  most  dear  to  his  own  nation,  courteous 
to  all,  most  liberal ;  endowed  with  prudence,  fortitude, 
j  ustice,  and  temperance  ;  most  patient  in  the  infirmity 
from  which  he  continually  suffered ;  the  most  discern- 
ing investigator  in  executing  justice,  most  watchful  and 
devout  in  the  service  of  God."^  Verily,  as  Alfred  him- 
self said,  "  no  man  may  do  aught  of  good  unless  God 
work  with  him";  and  in  the  good  king  God  gave  a 
great  gift  to  the  English  people. 

There  may  well  be  wonder  that  such  a  king  did  not 
take  his  place  in  the  Kalendar,  a  forerunner  of  S.  Louis 

1  Asser,  §  107,  108,  in. 

■^  Simeon  of  Durham,  Hisi.,  sub  ann.  887. 

^  Florence  of  Worcester,  Chron.,  sub  ann.  901. 


152  The  English  Saints 

of  France.  Local  veneration  was  paid  to  his  name. 
In  1 1 12  his  body  (with  that  of  Edward  the  Elder  and 
his  wife)  was  translated  to  a  tomb  at  the  foot  of  the 
high  altar  of  the  abbey  of  Hyde  near  the  walls  of  the 
city  of  Winchester.  The  relics,  it  seems  probable,  were 
found  in  1787,  and  scattered  to  the  dust.^  It  seems 
possible  that  in  some  places  his  obit  was  observed ;-  but 
all  attempts  to  obtain  formal  canonization  failed. 

Henry  VI.  applying  to  Pope  Eugenius  IV.  in  1441 
after  referring  to  a  previous  request  through  the  bishop 
of  Enaghdun  begged  for  the  canonization  of  King 
Alfred  through  whom,  both  in  his  life  and  after  his 
death,  God,  ever  admirable  in  His  saints,  worked 
many  miracles  :'■''  but  the  Pope  did  not  consent.  It  is 
strange  that  he  was  not  formally  canonized.  The 
explanation  perhaps  is  that  he  was  so  hallowed  in  the 
people's  reverence  that  no  canonization  was,  in  the 
earlier  days,  necessary.  It  was  possibly  so  with 
S.  Anselm.^     But  the  archbishop  obtained  through  the 

^  See  the  account  in  a  letter  of  Feb.  26,  1798  in  Archccologia^ 
xiii.  309.  Three  coffins  were  found  when  the  ruins  of  the  abbey 
were  destroyed,  a  small  field  being  purchased  by  the  county,  "and 
in  it  they  erected  the  new  gaol  or  Ihidewell,"  says  the  writer 
indignantly. 

-  See  A  Menology  of  Etij^land  and  Wa/cs,  by  K.  Slanton,  1887, 
prcf.  ]).  .\iii.  The  book  contains  some  "  who  cannot  be  proved  to 
have  been  publicly  honoured  as  saints,  but  who  were  eminent  for 
their  zeal  in  the  service  of  religion,  as  well  as,  either  for  their  holy 
lives,  as  Kings  Anna  and  Alfred,  or  for  their  edifying  con\ersion, 
as  Oswy  and  Edgar."  This  book  needed  a  supplement  of  correc- 
tion in  1892.  The  menology  of  Whytford  contains  no  mention  of 
Alfred. 

^  See  Letters  0/ Bekyiiton  (Rolls  Series),  i.  1 18-19. 

■*  But  I  am  inclined  rather  to  think  that  the  reason  was  that  his 
cause  never  made  any  popular  impression.     Men  could  see  what 


The  Royal  Saints  153 

intercession  of  Henry  VII.  what  was  denied  to  the 
king  when  Henry  VI.  asked  for  Alfred. 

In  Alfred  and  Edmund  there  abide  great  memories 
for  Englishmen.  But  this,  the  heroic  witness,  is  but 
one  aspect  of  saintly  kingship.  There  was  the  tragic 
contrast  between  great  place  and  great  sorrow  so 
patent  in  the  lives  of  monarchs.  And  from  the  first 
recorded  history  of  our  land  the  pathos  naturally 
embodied  itself  in  stories  of  child-kingship,  the  guilt- 
less suffering  of  those  called  to  great  place  in  early 
youth.  There  the  contrast  which  is  the  soul  of  pathos 
was  pointed  with  relentless  emphasis.^  Two  stories  of 
early  English  kings  long  lingered  in  the  memory  of  the 
people,  the  legend  of  S.  Kenelm  and  the  history  of 
S.  Edward. 

Among  modern  historians  there  is  a  conspirac}-  of 
silence  about  S.  Kenelm.-     A  legend,  which  does  not 


Becket  meant  :  the  question  in  dispute  in  Anselm's  time  was  too 
subtle  for  them. 

'  There  were  se\eral  youthful  king-martyrs  who  belonged  to  the 
period  of  the  decay  of  Mercia  and  rise  of  Wessex.  "  Of  these 
King -Martyrs,  S.  Ethelbert  of  East  Anglia,  slain  by  procurement 
of  Ofifa,  or  his  wife,  has  remained,  notwithstanding  the  canonization 
of  bishop  Thomas  of  Cantilupe,  the  patron  Saint  of  Hereford. 
S.  Alchmund,  King  of  Northumbria,  who  perished  in  the  year  800, 
was  honoured  at  Derby.  S.  Kenelm,  of  Mercia,  whose  cult  became 
widely  diffused,  was  the  victim  of  a  sister's  machinations.  S. 
Wistan,  the  last  offshoot  of  the  same  royal  house,  was  honoured  in 
the  abbey  of  Repton,  in  Derbyshire,  and,  after  the  translation  of 
his  relics  in  the  reign  of  Canute,  at  Evesham."  Edmund  Bishop, 
English  Hagio/ogy,  in  Dublin  Review^  January,  1885,  pp.  139-140. 

2  Diet.  Chr.  Biog..,  Dr.  Bright,  Mr.  Hunt,  for  example,  do  not 
mention  him.  Mr.  Plummer  has  a  note  in  his  Tivo  Saxon 
Chronicles.,  ii.  69,  on  the  legend.  It  is  given  in  Nova  Lcgenda, 
ii.  1 10  sqq. 


154  T"E  English  Saints 

seem  to  go  back  further  than  the  eleventh  century,  tells 
of  a  child  king  of  Mercia  in  the  ninth,  the  son  of 
Kcnwulf,  small  in  age  but  great  in  mind  and  in  piet\', 
as  the  Northern  hagiologist  writes.  He  was  made 
king  when  his  father  died,  but  his  sister  sought  his 
life  by  guile  and  force.  Given  to  a  protector  who  was 
to  murder  him,  he  was  taken  to  a  distant  forest,  but 
his  staff  blossoming  into  an  ash-tree  prevented  the 
murder  till  he  came  to  the  vale  of  Clent.  There  his 
head  was  cut  off,  while  he  sang  Tc  Dcnni  till  he 
came  to  the  words  "  the  \\hite  robed  arm}-  of  martyrs." 
A  cow  revealed  to  England,  a  dove  to  Rome,  the 
cruel  deed.  Cardinals  came  to  find  the  body :  the 
shires  of  Gloucester  and  Worcester  contended  for  its 
possession.  The  Gloucester  men  won  by  right  of  longer 
vigil :  and  at  Winchcombe  he  was  enshrined.  Miracles 
followed ;  the  blind  were  healed,  the  sceptics  con- 
vinced, and  Kenelm  took  his  place  among  the  saintly 
kings  of  England,  and  brought  great  fame  and  riches 
to  the  abbe}-  of  his  shrine.  Lives  were  written  which 
enriched  the  legend  with  poetic  embellishment :  pra}'ers 
and  hymns^  honoured  the  Mercian  bo}-  king. 

'  The   I>odIeian   MS.  285,  from  part  of  which  the  life  in  iXova 
Lci^cndd  is  adapted,  ends  with  these  verses,  hitherto  imprinted  : 
"  O  Kenelme  Martyr  ahne  Merciorum  -luria 
Rex  subhmis  tua  nimis  dulcis  est  memoria. 
Nam  precelhs  fano  melHs  gratia  dulcedinis 
Atque  rosis  speciosis  flore  pulchritudinis. 
Martyr  aue  qui  per  grauc  iuguh  suppHcium 
Deo  pacis  de  te  facis  gratum  sacrificium. 
Martyr  inquam  qui  longinquam  pacis  petens  patriam 
Huius  uite  sine  hte  hnquis  ydolatriam. 
Martyr  clare  deprccare  illam  tuani  dominani 
lUam  dignam  ac  beaignam  et  iocundam  feminam. 


The  Royal  Saints  155 

With  Edward  the  West  Saxon  we  come  to  more 
authentic  history.  The  Enghsh  Chronicle  tells  the 
story  quite  simply,  and  there  is  earl}-  confirmator\- 
evidence^  of  the  fact  that  he  was  at  once  regarded  as  a 
mart\'r,  as  "  cruelly  and  unjustl}-  put  to  death."- 

Judged  by  modern  standards,  Edward  king  of  the 
West  Saxons  was  not,  in  the  restricted  sense  of  the 
word  at  least,  a  saint.  He  was  in  no  sense,  so  far  as 
we  can  see,  a  martyr.  But  his  short  life  and  his  tragic 
death  touched  the  imagination  of  the  people  from  the 
very  first  and  even  yet  exist  as  a  dim  semi-superstitious 
memory  in  the  district  where  he  died.  His  story  is 
one  which  in  its  chief  features  stands  out  clear  and 
distinct. 

Illam  dico  que  pudico  uentre  deuni  genuit 

Et  nature  uicto  iure  castitatem  tenuit. 

Hanc  insignis  martyr  dignis  deprecare  precibus 

Et  tuorum.meritorum  interpella  uocibus. 

Vt  dignetur  quod  meretur  culpas  nostras  pellere 

Et  precare  nos  ditare  claritatis  munere. 

Vbi  gratis  cum  beatis  nos  contingat  socijs 

Eternorum  canticorum  perfrui  negocijs."' 
1  The  earliest  (says  Mr.  Plummer,  Two  Saxon  Chronicles,  ii.  166) 
is  the  Vita  Oswaldi  (^Historians  of  York,  Raine,  i.  449-450)  :  The 
hfe,  of  which  five  MSS.  exist,  with  certain  variations,  which  Sir 
T.  D.  Hardy  thought  possibly  might  be  the  work  of  Eadmer,  is 
printed  for  the  first  time  from  MS.  xcvi.  of  S.  John  Baptist  College, 
Oxford,  as  an  appendix  to  this  lecture.  See  Hardy,  Descriptive 
Catalogue,  i.  579-582.  The  life  in  Nova  Legenda,  i.  349  sqq.,  is  a 
much  abbreviated  version  of  that  ascribed  to  Eadmer.  William 
of  Malmesbury,  Gesta  Reguni,  ed.  Stubbs,  i.  181-185.  The  Life  in 
Bollandist  Acta  Sanctorum.  See  reference  to  Edward  in  Wulf- 
stan,  Sami/ilung  der  ihm  zugeschriebcu  Homilien  (Napier), 
p.  160. 

-  Plummer,  Tivo  Saxon  Chronicles,  ii.  166.  Cf.  the  case  of 
S.  Alphege  below,  Lecture  VT. 


156  The  English  Saints 

Left,  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  on  the  death  of  his 
father  the  great  king  Edgar,  with  Httle  guidance  or 
help  in  a  time  of  the  bitterest  disi)utes  between  secular 
and  ecclesiastical  parties,  he  was  placed  on  the  throne, 
in  spite  of  the  intrigues  of  his  stepmother,  b\'  the 
strong  arm  of  his  remote  kinsman,  /Elfherc,  the 
Ealdorman  of  the  Mercians,  and  the  wise  and  unselfish 
support  of  the  great  archbishop  Dunstan. 

His  short  reign  of  four  years  was  marked  by  a 
reaction  against  the  monastic  party ;  and  yet  the 
monastic  writers  do  not  the  less  regard  him  as  saint 
and  martyr. 

The  later  lives,  in  their  skilful  piecing  together  of 
record  and  tradition,  speak  of  him  as  a  boy  of  the 
highest  promise  who  spurned  the  coarse  vices  of  his 
age  and  kept  mind  and  body  pure  and  unstained  for 
the  service  of  God ;  as  prudent  and  industrious  in  his 
doings,  gracious  and  lovely  in  his  life.  They  dwell  on 
his  charity  and  his  gifts  to  the  poor — during  the  bitter 
famine,  it  may  be,  of  976,  of  which  the  English 
Chronicler  writes.  His  reign  was  probably  peaceful 
and  happy  ;  for  of  it  there  is  practically  no  history.  Of 
the  foul  murder  by  which  it  was  ended  the  English 
Chronicler  speaks  with  reticence.  Florence  of  Wor- 
cester, who  probably  embodies  a  version  of  one  of  them 
which  we  have  now  lost,  says  with  precision — writing 
more  than  a  century  afterwards — "  Eadward  king  of 
the  English  was  wickedly  slain  at  Corfe's  gate  by  his 
own  servants  acting  under  the  command  of  his  step- 
mother. Queen  ^Ethelfryth." 

William  of  Malmesbury,  who  blends  so  much  of 
legend  and  romance  with  his  most  sober  records  that 


The  Royal  Saints  157 

it  is  difficult  to  disentangle  the  one  from  the  other, 
gives,  in  his  Gesta  Regiini  and  his  life  of  S.  Dunstan, 
a  tale  which  certainly  owes  something  to  his  own 
imagination,  but  which  in  its  actual  account  of  the 
murder  itself  is,  I  cannot  but  think,  the  embodiment 
of  a  genuine  tradition.  This  is  the  story  which  is 
most  familiar  to  us — how  that  the  boy-king  (he  was 
scarcel}'  seventeen)  tired  and  hot  with  hunting,  was 
induced  by  his  wicked  stepmother  to  drink  the  stirrup- 
cup  (as  later  ages  called  it)  and  as  he  drank  was 
stabbed  from  behind ;  and  falling  from  his  horse,  as 
he  endeavoured  to  ride  away,  was  dragged  for  some 
distance  till  life  was  extinct.  One  cannot  help  fancying 
that  as  he  fell  he  uttered  some  sharp  words  of  prayer 
that  sank  into  the  hearts  of  those  who  saw  the  cruel 
murder  and  aroused  the  passionate  regret  that  was 
soon  so  powerfully  expressed.  It  was  a  pitiful  tale, 
whether  it  happened  as  William  of  Malmesbury  tells 
it  or  no :  and  thus  pitiful  did  the  earliest  English 
Chronicler  (himself  a  contemporary)  think  it  : — 

"  To  the  English  race  was  no  worse  deed  done 
than  this  was,  since  they  first  sought  Britain.  Men 
murdered  him,  but  God  him  glorified.  He  was  in  life 
an  earthly  King ;  he  is  now,  after  death,  a  heavenly 
saint.  Him  his  earthly  kinsmen  would  not  avenge ; 
but  his  Heavenly  Father  has  fully  avenged  him.  The 
earthly  murderers  would  his  memory  blot  out  on  earth  ; 
but  the  Avenger  above  has  spread  abroad  his  memory 
in  the  heavens  and  on  earth.  They  who  before  would 
not  to  his  living  body  bow,  now  humbly  bend  on  their 
knees  before  his  dead  bones." 

Thus,  at  once — so  we  find  from  all  sources — did  the 


15'^  The  Exclisii  Saints 

horror  of  tlic  thinj;-  fill  men  with  love  of  the  dead  and 
religious  veneration  for  his  memory.  In  the  night  after 
the  murder,  say  the  legends  whieh  the  Bollandists 
preserve,  a  woman  blind  from  her  birth  recovered  her 
sight ;  and  miracles  which  we  can  scarcely  fail  to 
recognize  as  imaginary  at  once  sprang  up  to  \\in  him 
the  title  of  mart}'r.  For  it  was  to  the  miracles  wrought 
by  his  body — so  Roger  of  Wendover  states — that  he 
owes  the  name  of  martyr  to  which  he  had  otherwise 
no  claim. 

Buried  at  first  with  disrespectful  haste  at  Wareham, 
his  body  was  translated  within  a  year  with  great  cere- 
monv  to  Shaftesbury,  whence  in  later  times  relics  of 
him  were  taken  to  Leominster  and  to  Abingdon.  He 
was  canonized,  in  the  old  fashion,  by  no  formal  decree 
but  b\-  popular  reverence.  His  name  was  never  placed 
in  the  Roman  kalendar,  but  both  the  day  of  his  death, 
the  i.Sth  of  March,  and  the  traditionary  date  of  the 
translation  preserved  in  the  Sarum  Breviary — the 
20th  of  June — were  observed  in  England.  The  collects 
and  lections  in  the  Sarum  Missal  and  Breviary  beauti- 
fully express  a  feeling  which  was  attested  all  over  the 
laud  by  the  building  of  churches— as  here  in  Oxford 
within  a  short  distance  from  this  church  of  S.  Mary — ■ 
dedicated  to  the  memory  of  the  young  King. 

So  deeply  did  men  ponder  over 

"  the  inheritance  of  this  poor  child 
His  httlc  kingdom  of  a  forced  grave." 

It  was  a  happy  inspiration  which  made  men,  when 
they  drew  up  the  services  of  commemoration  for  the 
boy  king,  find  a  peculiar  appropriateness  in  the  fact 
that    it   often   occurred  in    Lent.       He  who  had    used 


The  Royal  Saints  159 

Lent  so  wisel}'  during  his  life  had  been  taken  away  in 
the  midst  of  the  season  of  self-discipHne  that  he  might 
spend  his  Easter  in  Paradise.^  They  that  sow  in  tears 
shah  reap  with  ringing  cries  of  joy.  Life  is  a  stern 
training :  there  is  a  future  in  the  Divine  thought  of 
pity. 

It  is  something  of  this  feehng  which  hngers  in  the 
later  centuries :  not  the  grandeur  but  the  pathos  of 
kingship  brought  sovereigns  into  the  ranks  of  the 
saints.  When  Richard  IL  had  his  picture-  painted 
with  his  patron  saints,  two  English  kings  were  set 
above  him,  with  S.  John  Baptist,  to  watch  over  him 
in  love,  as  he  prayed.  One  was  the  fair-haired 
Edmund  martyred  by  the  Danes :  the  other,  in  robe 
of  pure  white,  with  hair  and  beard  touched  with  the 
marks  of  years  and  sorrows,  was  the  last  of  the  old  line 
of  Cerdic,  the  saint  and  confessor  whom  the  English 
looked  back  to  so  fondly  when  the  stern  hand  of  the 
Norman  was  laid  upon  the  land. 

By  the  time  that  a  French  clerk  set  himself  in  the 
thirteenth  century  to  idealize  the  good  King  Edward 
legend  had  gathered  thickly  around  him.  Ailred  of 
Rievaulx  a  century  before  had  told  the  story  of  the 
king's  life,^  deriving  most  of  his  life  from  that  by 
Osbern  of  Clare,  Prior  of  Westminster,  and  in  his  tale 
already  the  Confessor  had  become  a  centre  of  marvels. 
S.  Peter  prophesied  his  kingship  and  his  virtues,  and 
when  he  came  to  be  king  he  gave  up  the  "  Danescot  " 
because    he   saw   a   devil    sitting   on    the   top    of    the 

1  See  San///!  B/'cviary ;  Edw.  Rex  ct  Mart.,  lectio  \i. 

'^  The  famous  picture  at  Wilton  House. 

3  Migne,  Pairol,  La/.,  vol.  xcv.,  I'aris,  1855. 


i6o  The  English  Saints 

treasure,  black  and  hideous,'  and  he  hved  a  chaste  life, 
full  of  charity  to  the  sick  like  that  of  S.  Francis  of 
Assisi.  The  marvels  that  are  told  of  Edward  are  fit, 
it  seems,  for  him  who  would  continue  the  apocryphal 
work  of  Bishop  Mellitus  at  Westminster  through  whom 
Saint  Peter  in  a  gentle  manner  made  present  of  a 
salmon  to  King  Sebert.'-  The  ne\\-  abbey  under  good 
King  Edward  became  renowned  for  its  miracles  of 
healing,  especially  of  the  blind  :  and  to  him  it  was  given 
to  see  the  Seven  Sleepers  of  Ephesus,  and  for  love  of  him 
S.  John  Evangelist  succoured  pilgrims  in  their  distress. 
But  whatever  Henry  III.  and  his  wife  might  think 
of  him,  Edward  Confessor  was  no  model  for  English 
kings.  His  virtues  were  those  of  a  monk,  not  a  states- 
man. He  was  a  friend  of  good  men  ;  he  seriously 
endeavoured  at  least  to  begin  the  reform  of  the 
English  Church  by  foreign  influence  which  \\^illiam 
the  Conqueror  went  far  towards  accomplishing :  he 
tried  to  deal  justly  and  live  at  peace.  But  as  a  king 
he  was  weak  and  redeless :  even  the  virgin  life  which 
was  one  of  the  marks  of  his  sanctity  would  for  the 
sake  of  England  have  been  better  laid  aside  when  he 
married  Earl  Godwine's  daughter.^     For  this  last  point 

'  La  Esfoire,  p.  52  : 

Vit  un  deable  ser  desus 
Le  tresor,  noir  et  hidus. 

Cf.  \V.  H.  Hutton,  S.  Thomas  of  Canterbury^  jip.  38-39  (second 
edition).  -  La  Estoire,  p.  86. 

•'  The  early  if  not  absolutely  contemporary  bioj^iapheis  believed 
that  his  relations  with  his  wife  were  like  those  of  father  and 
daughter.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  these  lives  with  those  in 
Pertz,  M0JI.  Germ.  Hisi.,  iv.  679-695  and  787-828.  S.  Henry  too 
worked  what  P^ertz  considers  trivial  miracles.  For  his  married  life 
see  pp.  816,  817. 


The  Royal  Saints  i6i 

he  has  a  contemporary  parallel  in  the  Emperor 
Henry  11. ,  but  the  Caesar  was  a  greater  sovereign  as 
well  as  a  truer  saint.  Yet  with  all  his  weaknesses 
Edward  Confessor  had  an  ideal,  inadequately  though 
he  understood  it,  and  that  ideal  was  the  life  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.  Thus  the  northern  monk  could  write  of 
him  as  "the  father  of  his  country,  and  another  Solo- 
mon, that  is  a  lover  of  peace,  who  protected  his  king- 
dom by  peace  rather  than  by  arms.  He  had,"  he  says, 
"  a  mind  that  subdued  anger,  despised  avarice,  and  was 
entirely  free  from  pride. "^  We  do  not  wonder  that 
the  true  English  monk,  a  stout  Godwine's  man,  and  a 
servant  of  Queen  Eadgyth,  should  speak  the  thoughts 
of  his  countrymen  when  he  says  that  the  good  king's 
body,  "  before  the  altar  of  the  blessed  apostle  Peter, 
washed  by  the  tears  of  his  country,  was  laid  up  in  the 
sight  of  God."- 

Centuries  passed,  and  the  men  who  ruled  England 
were  stark  men,  and  there  was  great  awe,  no  love,  of 
them  ;  but  still  unfading  was  the  old  belief  in  the 
sanctity  of  the  English  kings.  Even  Edward  H.,  the 
idler  and  the  agriculturist,  was  considered  an  eligible 
candidate  for  canonization  by  a  people  who  resented 
the  crimes  by  which  he  was  deposed  and  slain.^     But 

^  Turgot,  Life  of  S.  Margaret,  cap.  i. 

2  Lives  of  Edw.  Conj.,  ed.  Luard,  p.  434.  Whytford's  Martilogc 
gives  January  5  as  his  day  (he  died  January  3,  1066),  and  October  13 
as  his  translation.  The  observance  of  the  latter  day  has  been 
re\  ived  in  Westminster  Abbey  since  1896  ^A  Commemoration,  etc., 
by  J.  Armitage  Robinson,  p.  15). 

^  "It  was  debated  by  the  people  whether  Edward  II.  had  not 
merited  the  honour  of  sanctity,"  Bishop  Stubbs,  referring  to 
Knighton,  c.  2551. 

II 


i62  The  English  Saints 

the  "debate"  did  not  last  lonj:^ :  his  "elegant  off- 
spring "^  soon  gave  the  people  other  things  to  think 
about. 

One  later  king  there  was  who  revived  the  forgotten 
memories  of  holiness.  There  came  to  sit  upon  the 
throne,  in  times  of  grievous  stress,  one  whose  first 
thought  was  always  the  service  of  the  Divine  Master. 
His  services  to  learning,  as  a  wise  founder,  were  un- 
paralleled :  and  over  all  study  he  would  have  set  the 
motto  "  to  the  glory  of  God." 

The  beautiful  simplicity  of  Henry  VI.  and  the  cruel 
tragedy,  more  than  suspected,  of  his  death,  made  him 
soon  revered  as  a  martyr.  Yorkshire,  always  loyal  to 
the  house  of  Lancaster,  developed  a  special  veneration 
for  the  saintly  king.'-  York  was  the  centre  of  the  cult. 
Dean  Andrews  had  been  Henry's  chaplain  and  it  was 
probably  by  him  that  an  image  of  the  king  was  set  up  on 
the  rood  screen  of  the  Minster.^  In  1476  the  altar  of 
S.  Saviour  in  the  Minster  was  refounded  by  the  Dean 
for  the  souls  of  Henry,  his  queen,  and  others.*^  Three 
years  later  Archbishop  Laurence  Booth  was  obliged  by 
the  government  of  Edward  IV.  to  issue  a  monition^ 

1  "  Regaliter  nupsit  et  prolem  elegantem  regni  sui  haeredem 
suscititavit,"  M.  Malmesb.,  p.  135. 

■-'  Co7it.  Croyhind,  p.  566. 

■'  Fabric  Rolls  of  York  Minster  (Surtees  Soc),  p.  82,  show  that 
it  was  there  in    1473  :   in    15 16  a  sum  was  paid  for  painting   it, 

'  Ibid.,  ])p.  301,  227.  Tlie  altar  liad  gone  before  1500,  when  an 
ahar  is  spoken  of  as  "nuper  Regis  Henrice  sexti." 

"  The  monition  is  of  sufficient  interest  to  be  printed  here  verbatim 
(from  Fabric  Rolls,  etc.,  pp.  208  S(jq.).  IMonitio  facta  quod  ahquis 
si\e  ahqui  non  venerentur  statuam  sive  ymaginem  Henrici  nuper 
regis  AngU;e  de  faclo,  et  nun  de  jure,  etc.  (Reg.  Laur.  Jiooth,  1 13,  a). 


The  Royal  Saints  163 

against  venerating  any  image  or  statue  of  the  king. 
The  document  has  a  special  interest  because  it  gives 
for  reason  the  rule  that  papal  confirmation  was  required 
before  the  veneration  of  any  saint.  The  Yorkshire 
Trevelyans  preserve  a  parchment  bede  roll,  dated  1462, 
which  has  a  number  of  pages  to  Henry  VL,  part  of 
such  an  office  as  the  Franciscan  drew  up  for  Simon  de 

Laurencius,  etc.,  dilecto  nobis  in  Christo  magistro  Willelmo  Pote- 
man,  legum  doctori,  ac  nostne  curite  consistorialis  Ebor.  official! 
salutem,  etc.  Ex  utriusque  juris  pagina,  inter  alia,  didicimus  quod 
non  debemus  aliquem  defunctum  tanquam  Sanctum,  quantum - 
cumque  bonie  vitas  fuerit,  publice  venerari,  aut  eidem  palam  et 
publice  offerre,  donee  idem  defunctus  ab  Ecclesia  et  a  Romano 
pontifice  fuerit  approbatus,  ac  ejusdem  defuncti  nomen  in  cathalogo 
Romani  pontificis  fuerit  ascriptum  ;  si  quis  vel  qui  contrafacere  pre- 
sumpserit  vel  presumpserint,  secundum  canonum  instituta  punietur 
et  punientur,  cum  ecclesia  militaris  sepe  fallit  et  fallitur.  Nonnulli 
tamen  nostrie  Ebor.  diocesios  Christi  fideles,  premissorum  canonum 
scioli,  ipsis  canonibus  spretis  et  neglectis,  auctoritate  propria,  et 
auctoritate  ecclesis  sive  Romani  pontificis  minime  suffulti,  locum, 
ubi  statua  sive  ymago  Henrici  sexti  quondam  de  facto  regis  Anglian 
in  Ecclesia  nostra  metropolitica  Ebor.  situabatur,  venerari,  et  ibidem 
publice  offerre  presumpserunt,  quamquam  ipsius  corpus  universalis, 
et  in  vilipendium  domini  nostri  Edwardi,  Anglorum  regis  quarti, 
aliorumque  Christi  fidelium  exemplum  perniciosum.  Quare  vobis 
firmiter  injungendo  mandamus  quatenus  moneatis  omnibus  et 
singulis  decanis  totius  nostra;  Ebor.  diocesios,  quatenus  decani  et 
eorum  quilibet,  omnes  et  singulos  in  ipsius  seu  ipsorum  decanatu 
vel  decanatibus  moneat  seu  moneant  cum  effectu,  quos  eciam  nos 
presentium  tenore  monemus  quod  ipsi  et  eorum  singuli  de  cetero 
ab  hujusmodi  veneracione  dicti  loci  in  predicta  nostra  Ecclesia 
Metropolitica  Ebor.  se  abstineant,  sub  pena  juris.  Intimantes 
omnibus  et  singulis  Christi  fidelibus  dictse  nostra  diocesios  si 
presens  contra  prius  nostrum  mandatum  aliquid  attemptare  pre- 
sumpserint seu  presumpserit  aliquis  eorumdem  quod  nos  taliter 
puniemus  quod  ceteri  cxemplo  preterriti  consimilia  perpetrare 
formidabunt.      Data,    etc.,    apud    Scroby,    27    Oct.,    1479    (l^eg. 

113,  ')• 

II — '2 


164  The  English  Saints 

Montfort.^  Henry  YU.,  whose  great  aim  it  was  to 
connect  himself  hereditarily  with  the  line  of  Henry  VI. 
and  attract  to  himself  the  romantic  affection  of  the  old 
Lancastrians,  endeavoured  to  win  the  canonization  of 
the  murdered  king  :  and  evidence  of  his  sanctity  was 
collected.-      But   the  attempt    failed  :  partly    it  would 

1  Ti-cvclyan  Papers,  First  Series,  Camden  Soc.,i)p.  53-60.  Here 
ys  a  dcvoutc  prayer  of  Kyne  Herre  : 

"  Gaude,  princeps  populoruni 
Dux  et  decus  Britanorum 

Rex  Henricus  nomine,  etc.,  etc." 
And   in   the  same  volume  is  a   MS.  formerly  belonging   to   the 
Pudsey  family,  of  similar  prayers,  etc.     See  also  Notes  and  (Queries, 
2nd  Series,  No.  26,  June  28,  1856,  p.  509,  and  ef.  Canoni:.alion  of 
S.  Osmund. 

-  ]31akman  de  Virtutibus  et  Miraeulis  Henriei  VI.  in  Hcarne"s 
Otterbourne  et  Whei/iamstede,  vol.  i.,  p.  287.  '■'■  ProJienduJii.  .  .  . 
Maxime  quia  sanctos  Dei  laudare,  quorum  in  cathalogo  istum  puto 
regem  eximium,  ob  sancta  sua  merita  quoad  vixit  per  eum  exer- 
cittita,  mcrito  computari,  omnipotentis  Dei  laus  est  et  gloria,  ex 
cuius  ccclesti  dono  est,  ut  sancti  sint.  De  prienobili  eius  prosapia, 
quo  mode  scilicet  ex  nobilissimo  sanguine  et  stirpe  regia  antiqua 
Angliie  secundum  carnem  progenitus  erat,  et  qualiter  in  duabus 
regionibus  Angli;u  et  Franciii;,  ut  verus  utriusque  heres  coronatus 
fuerat,  tacere  curavi,  quasi  manifesto  et  notu.  .  .  ." 

From  the  following  it  would  seem  that  he  was  preparing  materials 
for  possible  canonization.  He  gives  "  Virtutum  eius  commendatio," 
and  says  "Timor  Dhi  inerat  ei. . . .  O  cjuanta  diligentia  placendi  Deo 
in  tam  sublimi  et  iuvenili  persona  est.  Attcnditc  rcges  et  principes 
universi,  juvencs  et  virgines  et  ])opuli  quique,  et  laudate  Dhum  in 
Sanctis  eius.  .  .  ."  He  speaks  of  him  as  "  Cultor  Dei  sedulus,"  and 
adds  commendation  of  "  Devota  habitudo  eius  in  ecclesia.  Pudicitia 
eius.  Liljcralitas  eius.  Humilitas  regis.  Labor  et  exercitium  eius. 
Juramenta  eius.  Pietas  et  patientia  eius."  He  says  further  that 
"Anima  autem  ipsius,  ut  pie  credimus,  ex  miraculoru,  ubi  corpus 
eius  humatur,  diutina  continuatione,  cum  Deo  in  coelestibus  vivente, 
ubi,  ])0st  istius  sncculi  aerumnas,  cum  iustis  in  aeterno  Dei  con- 
tuitu  feliciter  gaudet,  pro  tcrreno  et  transitorio  regno  hoc  paticnter 


The  Royal  Saints  165 

seem  because  of  the  Tudor  king's  reluctance  to  pay 
the  enormous  fees  demanded  at  Rome/  and  partly 
no  doubt  through  the  difficult}'  of  finding  sufficient 
miracles."-  It  is  asserted  by  Hearne  that  Henry  VIII. 
made  the  same  endeavour,  and  that  Catherine  of  Aragon 
prevented  it.-' 

The  characters  of  the  kings  of  the  next  century  could 
hardly  be  drawn  within  the  circle  of  the  saints.  The 
Reformation  gave  for  the  time  new  ideals,  and  the 
Church  till  the  seventeenth  century  ceased  to  look  for 
examples  of  holiness  in  royal  courts.     But  the  memory 


amisso,  aeternum  jam  possidens  in  aevum."  Finally  he  speaks  of 
"  Revelationes  ei  ostensae." 

^  Hall,  Chronicle,  p.  304.  "...  these  and  other  like  offices  of 
holynes  caused  GOD  to  work  miracles  for  him  in  his  life  tyme,  (as 
old  nienne  saied).  By  reason  whereof,  Kyng  Henry  the  seuenth, 
not  without  cause,  sued  to  holy  Bishop  of  Rome  to  haue  him 
canonized,  as  other  sainctes  be :  but  the  fees  of  canonizing  of  a 
King,  wer  of  so  great  a  quatitie  at  Rome  (more  then  the  canon- 
izing of  a  Bushoppe  or  a  prelate,  although  he  satte  in  sa'incte  Peters 
Cheire)  that  the  saied  King  thought  it  more  necessary  to  keep  his 
money  at  home,  for  the  profite  of  his  realme  and  country,  rather 
than  to  empouerish  his  kingdom,  for  the  gaining  of  a  newe  holy 
day  of  Sainct  Henry  :  remitting  to  GOD  the  judgement  of  his  will 
and  intent."  But  Bacon  wittily  suggested  the  following  reason 
"  because  the  Pope  would  put  a  difference  betwenn  a  Saint  and  an 
iunoccjity  Hearne,  a  legitimist  of  an  extreme  type,  says  "The 
Pope  knew  that  Henry  VI.  was  not  king  cie  iu7'e  but  only  de  facto, 
and  a  poor  creature."     See  Notes  and  Queries  as  above. 

■-'  See  Hearne's  Otterboiir7ie  afid  W/iethanisfcde,  vol.  i.,  for  the 
attempt.  See  also  Polydore  Vergil's  emphasis  on  the  miracles  : 
and  the  account  by  Dr.  Gasquet  of  the  passage  in  the  Vatican  MS. 
Transactions  of  R.  Hist.  Soc,  N.S.,  xvi.  15.  For  Henry  VI. 's  own 
attitude  towards  miracles  cf  Shakespeare's  Henry  VI.,  Part  II., 
act  ii.,  sc.  I. 

■■■  Hearne,  Otterboi/rne,  i.,  pref ,  p.  1. 


i66  The  English  Saints 

of  the  just  could  not  pass  away  :  and  as  long  as  English 
history  is  written,  and  as  the  great  triumphs  of  English 
architecture  remain,  men  will  remember  Oswald  and 
Edmund,  and  the  two  Edwards,  martyr  and  confessor. 
The  lives  of  early  English  kings  had  set  before  the 
people  an  ideal  of  service  in  high  place  which  has  never 
been  abandoned,  the  forgetfulness  of  which  in  any 
sovereign  has  been  bitterly  resented,  and  which  has 
endured  in  shining  example  of  accomplishment  to  the 
beginning  of  the  century  that  is  now  before  us.  Long 
may  it  survive  !  The  monarchy  which  cherishes  such 
memories  will  remain  a  blessing:  to  the  land. 


APPENDIX  TO  LECTURE  IV 

[MS.  S.  John's  College,  g6] 

INCIPIT    PASSIO    SANCTI    EADWARDI    REGIS 
ET    MARTIRIS 

InCLITVS     rex     EADVVARDVS    alto     ET     NOBILISSIMO    REGVM 

antiquorum  stemate  in  brittannia  oriundus  fuit.  Quodque 
his  maius  est  ab  ipso  pueritie  sue  flore  a  sancto  dvnstano 
cantuariensi  archipresule  christi  regeneratus  sacramentis 
morum  honestate  cepit  poUere.  Extitit  autem  pie  memorie 
rege  edgaro  nomine  progenitus  qui  inter  cunctos  brittannie 
reges  tam  in  procinctu  bellorum  quam  in  dei  rebus  uelut 
lucifer  radiis  probitatis  sue  effulserat.  Nam  postquam 
monarchiam  regni  deo  fauente  prudenter  adeptus  est  omnes 
insulas  totius  regionis  in  quibus  ante  eum  diuersi  reges 
principabantur  suo  imperio  adauxit.  Dein  etiam  ortantibus 
et  docentibus  predicto  archipresule  et  sancto  oethekiuoldo 
uuintoniensi  episcopo  multa  sue  patrie  destituta  ac  exinanita 
monasteria  de  suo  fecit  restaurari  nonnulla  uero  a  funda- 
mentis  edificari.  Abbates  quoque  cum  monachorum  turbis 
sub  discipHne  iugo  regulariter  uicturos  in  quibusdam  dirigit 
in  quibusdam  autem  sanctimonialium  congregationes  statuit 
feminarum  conferens  predia  ac  uillas  ad  uictum  et  uestitum 
eorum  sufficienter.  Tahter  itaque  rebus  in  domo  dei  dis- 
positis  studens  gloriosus  rex  ut  fieret  sancte  matri  ecclesie 
munimento  exterius  et  ornamento  interius  inter  cetera 
probitatum  suarum  insignia  hoc  ab  eo  decretum  est  ut  de 
monachis  in  congregatione  positis  ipse  tanquam  pastor 
prouidus  eos  frequenter  uisitando  et  consolando  curam 
gereret  et  uxor  ejus  sanctimonialium  conuenticula  tanquam 
mater  piissima  procuraret  ut  uidelicet  mas  maribus  et  femina 
feminis  absque  ulla  suspicione  conuenientius  subueniret. 
[  167  ] 


i68  The  English  Saints 

Habebat  etiani  idem  preclarus  rex  ex  alia  coniuge  nomine 
aelftrid  filium  alterum  cui  nomen  erat  a^thelredus.  Set  pre- 
dictus  filius  suus  bone  indolis  adolescens  eaduuardus  nequa- 
quam  lasciuie  aut  uoluptatibus  illecebrose  carnis  mentem 
intendit  set  talem  se  in  omnibus  exhibere  studuit  ut  deo 
super  omnia  in  integritate  mentis  et  corporis  complaceret  et 
ab  hominibus  pio  diligeretur  affectu.  Uidens  uero  pater 
eius  tantam  in  filio  karissimo  animi  florere  ingenuitatem 
gauisus  super  prudentia  eius  et  industria  hunc  post  se  in 
solio  iure  hereditario  inthronizandum  paterno  more  instituit 
ac  preordinauit.  Interea  compositis  et  subactis  ut  premisi- 
mus  in  pace  et  tranquillitate  totius  regni  partibus  memoratus 
rex  piissimus  edgarvs  ex  hac  subtractus  est  uita  a  domino 
ut  credimus  gaudia  percepturus  eterna  anno  dominice 
incarnationis  nongentesimo  quinquagesimo  uicesimo  septimo 
principatus  autem  sui  anno  sextodecimo  mense  iulio  die 
octauo  mensis  eiusdem.  Quo  mortuo  filius  eius  senior 
EADVVARDVs  ex  uoluntate  patris  ut  prelibauimus  a  sancto 
DVNSTANO  et  quibusdam  principibus  ad  regni  gubernacula 
suscipienda  eligitur.  Set  dum  consecrationis  eius  tempore 
nonnulli  patrie  optimates  resistere  uoluissent  sanctus  dvx- 
STANVS  in  electione  eius  unanimiter  perseuerans  uexillum 
crucis  sancte  quod  ex  consuetudine  pre  se  ferebatur  arrep- 
tum  in  medio  statuit  eumque  cum  reliquis  religiosis  epis- 
copis  in  regem  consecrauit.  Quem  etiam  paterno  affectu 
toto  quo  aduixit  tempore  dilexit  quia  eum  ab  annis  puerilibus 
sibi  in  filium  adoptauerat.  Sanctus  uero  HAin'\ARnus  in 
regni  solio  sullimatus  a  rege  regum  domino  in  omni  uia 
iusticie  et  ueritatis  dirigebatur  cuius  et  auxilio  fretus  magno 
animi  ingenio  et  summahumilitate  in  dies  crescebat.  Nam 
in  noviter  adepto  honore  mox  pristine  probitati  hec  suarum 
incrementa  uirtutum  accumulauit  iuuenum  uidelicet  et 
minus  sapientum  consilia  postponere  predicti  archipresulis 
monitis  mentem  salubriter  intendere  et  secundum  consilium 
eius  et  aliorum  religiosorum  spectabiliumque  uirorum  sua 
iudicia  in  omnibus  exercere.  Paternarum  quoque  tradi- 
tionum   emulator   fortissimus   effectus    et   tam    in    militari 


Appendix  to  Lecture  IV  169 

uirtute  quam  in  ecclesiasticis  negotiis  disponendis  deuote 
et  strenue  intentus  contra  hostes  et  male  agentes  quadam 
crudelitate  utebatur  pie  uiuentes  uero  et  precipue  in  sacris 
ordinibus  constitutos  sollerti  cura  ueluti  a  patre  piissimo 
didicerat  ab  omni  infestatitione  protegebat.  Preterea  etiam 
quendani  cotidiane  consuetudinis  ritum  agebat  inopes  alere 
pauperes  recreare  nudis^  uestimenta  largiri  pro  magno 
utique  lucro  ea  computans  que  in  tali  opere  consumpsisset. 
Tunc  in  anglorum  populo  magna  ubique  extitit  iocunditas 
magna  pacis  constantia  magna  rerum  opulentia  quoniam 
rex  eorum  talibus  in  primo  adhuc  iuuentutis  principiis 
deditus  cunctis  erat  affabilis  castitate  laudabilis  facie  decorus 
et  hilaris  consilio  et  prudentia  probatissimus.  Sed  totius 
bonitatis  inimicus  diabolus  felicibus  actibus  inuidens  et 
communia  regni  totius  gaudia  disturbare  cupiens  nouercam 
eius  aelftrid  in  odium  ipsius  concitat  cuius  presumptuosa 
calliditas  quam  sit  execrabilis  ex  euentu  rei  satis  animaduerti 
potest.  Nam  inuidie  zelo  succensa  cogitare  cepit  qualiter 
uirum  dei  a  regno  extirparet  ut  filius  suus  aethelredus  liberius 
in  regno  substitueretur.  Talia  itaque  ea  diu  in  animo 
pertractante  quibusdam  principibus  consiliariis  suis  secreta 
cordis  sui  aperiens  consilium  super  hoc  cum  illis  habuit 
orans  et  optestans  ut  ei  una  assensum  preberent  et  quo 
ordine  id  fieri  posset  excogitarent.  Qui  protinus  in  nece 
illius  omnes  consenserunt  et  ut  hoc  quantotius  perficerent 
fraudulenta  machinatione  meditabantur.  Quid  multa  ? 
Confirmato  ut  supradiximus  uenerabili  uiro  in  regno  cum 
iam  tribus  tantum  annis  et  octo  mensibus  sceptro  hereditario 
potiretur  forte  die  quadam  cum  canibus  et  equitibus  uenandi 
gratia  in  siluam  accessit  que  iuxta  uillam  que  dicitur 
Werham  admodum  grandis  tunc  habebatur  set  nunc  rara 
tantum  spineta  nucumque  arbores  neglecto  situ  campis  late 
patentibus  ibi  cernuntur.  Ubi  cum  aliquandiu  incepto 
negotio  insisteret  reminiscens  fratris  sui  adolescentis  aethel- 
redi   ad    uisendum   ilium   ire   disposuit  quia  eum  puro  et 

1  MS.  "  nidis." 


17.0  The  English  Saints 

sincere  corde  diligebat.  Frater  autem  iuxta  eandem  siluam 
domus  nouerce  sue  in  qua  predictus  puer  nutriebatur  in 
loco  qui  ab  incolis  corph  nuncupatur  a  uilla  memorata 
tribus  milibus  distans  ubi  nunc  castrum  satis  celeste  con- 
structum  est.  Ad  quam  duni  assumpto  pauco  secum 
comitatu  proficisceretur  ecce  subito  in  medio  uie  spatio 
hominibus  illius  ludentium  more  hue  illucque  dispersi  et 
uagantibus  ipse  absque  ullo  comite  remansit.  At  ille  ut 
erat  solus  ad  domum  illam  quia  iam  eminus  earn  aspiciebat 
tanquam  agnus  mansuetissimus  tendit  neminem  uerens  aut 
pertimescens  qui  nee  in  minimis  quidem  aliquem  se  offen- 
disse  recognoscebat.  Cui  dum  approximaret  nuntiatum  est 
impiissime  regine  a  ministris  suis  illuc  regem  eadvvardvm 
aduenire.  Ilia  autem  plena  iniqua  cogitatione  et  dolo  ad 
explenda  nequitie  sue  desideria  adipisci  se  tempus  idoneum 
gaudens  obuia  mox  cum  satellitibus  iniquitatis  tanquam  de 
aduentu  eius  congratulans  procedit  blande  eum  et  amica- 
biliter  salutat  ad  hospitium  inuitat.  Qui  renuit  set  fratrem 
suum  se  uidere  et  alloqui  uelle  denuntiat  cum  ilia  rursum  ad 
alia  se  commenta  transformans  iubet  absque  dilatione  sibi 
potum  propinari  scilicet  ex  occulto  opperiens  ut  dum  ille 
potum  incaute  degustaret  opportunius  quod  cogitarat  ex- 
pleret.  Interim  unus  etiam  qui  et  animo  audatior  et  scelere 
immanior  erat  ficta  dilectione  inde  traditoris  domini  factum 
imitans  pacis  ei  libauit  osculum  ut  uidelicet  omnem  sus- 
picionem  auferens  amoremque  intimum  ei  demonstrans 
facilius  suffocaret.  Quod  et  factum  est.  Nam  postquam 
poculum  a  pincerna  suscipiens  summo  tenus  ore  attigit  is 
qui  osculum  sibi  intulerat  ex  aduerso  insiliens  cultello  mox 
eius  uiscera  transfixit.  Qui  graui  inflictus  uulnere  cum 
paululum  inde  diuertisset  de  equo  cui  insederat  subito  in 
terram  exanimis  ruit.  Sicque  carus  dei  occumbens  pro 
terrenis  mutuauit  celestia  pro  corona  caduca  et  momentanea 
diadema  inmarcescibile  percepit  eterne  felicitatis.  Actum 
est  autem  hoc  anno  uerbi  incarnati  nongentesimo  octogesimo 
primo  quodque  dictu  nefas  est  quadragesimali  tempore 
scilicet  (juintodecimo  kalend.    aprilis.      Quod  ut  credimus 


Appendix  to  Lecture  IV  171 

ad  cumulanda  militis  sui  merita  diuina  dispensatio  sic 
preordinauit  ut  qui  se  annuo  quadragesime  ieiunio  carnem 
suani  macerando  aliisque  bonis  operibus  inherendo  secun- 
dum laudabilem  christianorum  rituin  ad  superuenturain 
dominice  resurrectionis  diem  preparauerat  in  bono  fine 
consummatus  cum  ipso  fructu  bonorum  operum  in  celesti 
curia  a  christo  susciperetur  quia  iuxta  sententiam  ipsius 
districti  iudicis  in  quo  quisque  fine  deprehensus  fuerit  in 
ipso  diiudicandus  erit.  Predicta  uero  elftrid  de  equo  ilium 
cecidisse  audiens  nequitie  sue  nondum  rabie  exsaturata 
rapi  corpus  eius  quantotius  iubet  et  in  domicilium  quoddam 
quod  iuxta  erat  proici  ne  palam  fieret  quod  fecerat.  Cuius 
imperio  ministri  parentes  nefandissimii  ilico  accurrunt  pre- 
dictum  sacrum  corpus  more  beluino  per  pedes  abstrahunt  et 
in  domicilium  contemptibiliter  ut  iusserat  proiectum  uilibus 
stramentis  cooperiunt.  Erat  autem  in  eadeni  domuncula 
mulier  quedam  a  natiuitate  ceca  quam  memorata  regna  in 
elemosina  sua  pascere  solebat.  Que  dum  sequenti  nocte  ibi 
cum  sacro  corpore  sola  pernoctasset  ecce  intempesta  nocte 
gloria  domini  in  eadem  domo  apparens  immenso  earn 
repleuit  splendore.  Unde  predicta  paupercula  non  modico 
perculsa  terrore  cum  omnipotentis  dei  misericordiam  atten- 
tius  deprecaretur  superna  largiente  gratia  lumen  diu  disidera- 
tum  meritis  uiri  dei  recipere  meruit.  Quo  in  loco  etiam 
postea  a  fidelibus  in  testimonium  miraculi  ob  eius  memoriam 
ecclesia  fabricata  est  que  usque  ad  tempora  nostra  per- 
durauit.  Interea  rumpente  diluculo  tenebras  dum  per 
mulierculam  illam  regina  quod  factum  fuerat  comperisset  et 
eam  quam  a  natiuitate  lumine  priuatam  nouerat  iam 
illuminatam  uidisset  angustiatur  uultu  et  mente  in  diuersa 
mutatur  metuens  opus  suum  execrabile  sic  posse  propalari 
si  non  attentius  uiri  dei  corpus  tolleretur.  Imperat  itaque 
celeriter  satellitibus  clanctilo  illud  efferri  et  in  locis  abditis 
et  palustribus  ubi  minus  putaretur  humo  tegi  ne  ab  aliquo 
amplius  inueniri  potuisset.  Quibus  iussa  sine  mora  com- 
plentibus  edictum  quo  nil  inclementius  proposuit  ne  quis  de 
interitu   eius  gemeret  aut  omnino  loqueretur  se   nimirum 


172  The  English  Saints 

memoriam  eius  de  terra  oninino  delere  existimans.  His  ita 
peractis  ad  quandam  sui  iuris  mansionem  a  predicto  loco 
decern  miliariis  distantem  que  hkre  uocatur  continuo  secessit 
lit  uidelicet  quod  fecerat  sic  dissimulando  super  hoc  de  ea 
suspitionem  nemo  haberet. 

Interea  tantus  dolor  filiuin  suuni  ethelredum  de  tarn 
crudeli  fratris  sui  niorte  inuasit  ut  consolationem  a  nemine 
recipere  neque  luctu  neque  lacrimis  temperare  potuisset. 
Unde  mater  eius  in  furorem  accensa  candelis  quia  aliud  ad 
manus  non  habebat  atrociter  eum  uerberauit  ut  ita  ululatum 
eius  per  multa  uerbera  tandem  compesceret.  Hincut  fertur 
postea  toto  uite  sue  tempore  candelas  ita  exosas  habuit  ut 
uix  eas  aliquando  coram  se  lucere  permitteret.  Post  hec 
igitur  transacto  pene  anno  cum  iam  superne  pietati  emeri- 
tum  martirem  suum  eadvvardum  mundo  innotescere  quan- 
tique  meriti  apud  se  fuerit  declarare  complacuisset  corpus 
eius  uenerabile  f]uibusdam  fidelibus  denote  querentibus 
reuelare  dignatus  est  atque  celesti  inditio  demonstrare. 
Nam  circa  locum  ipsuni  ubi  occultatum  fuerat  coluiiina 
instar  ignis  desuper  emissa  apparuit  que  lucis  sue  radiis 
locum  undique  frequenter  irradiare  uisa  est.  Quod  quidam 
uiri  deuoti  de  uilla  uicina  Werham  uidentes  congregati  in 
unum  de  memorato  loco  illud  sustulerunt  et  in  uillam  suam 
deportauerunt.  Fit  interim  concursus  ingens  et  planctus 
omnium  regias  exequias  prosequentium  uox  una  ululantium. 
Hen  inquiunt  quid  iam  post  hec  solacii  sperare  poterimus  ? 
Ouis  nos  ab  hostium  incursionibus  percusso  tarn  dulcissimo 
pastore  liberabit  ?  Periere  gaudia  nostra  immo  et  patrie 
nostre  pacis  et  concordie  federa  confusa  sunt.  'I'lmc  rum 
his  gementium  uocibus  ad  ecclesiam  sancte  dei  genitricis 
^^AKIE  corpus  uenerabile  perductum  ad  orientalem  eius 
plagam  officiosissime  die  iduum  mensis  februarii  sepelierunt 
ubi  lignea  ecclesiola  que  postea  a  uiris  religiosis  fabricata 
est  usque  hodie  demonstratur.  Fons  etiam  in  loco  in  (]uo 
prius  iacuerat  dulces  et  perspicuas  aquas  ex  eo  tempore 
us(]ue  hodie  emanare  cernitur  nomenque  eius  a  sancti  uiri 
nomine  adaptatum  fons  sancti  kadvuakdi  dicitur  ubi  infirmis 


Appendix  to  Lecture  IV  173 

multa  cotidie  ad  laudem  domini  nostri  ihesu  christi  prestan- 
tur  beneficia.  Interea  fama  uulgante  per  uniuersani 
anglorum  patriam  fraus  et  impietas  regine  manifestatur 
regis  innocentis  preconium  extollitur  uirtutum  et  meritoruin 
eius  insignia  ubique  predicantur.  Audiens  itaque  quidam 
comes  magnificus  selfere  nomine  sanctum  corpus  tam  pre- 
claro  indicio  inuentum  immenso  perfusus  gaudio  dominoque 
suo  tanquam  ad  hue  uiuo  fidele  obsequium  prebere 
desiderans  in  digniorem  locum  illud  transferre  decreuit. 
Erat  enim  idem  uir  illustris  magnam  de  crudeli  eius  interitu 
compassionem  habens  et  nimis  indigne  ferens  tam  pre- 
ciosam  margaritam  in  tam  uili  loco  obfuscari.  Ad  quod 
opus  digne  peragendum  episcopos  et  abbates  cum  optimati- 
bus  regni  quos  habere  potuit  inuitat  et  ut  in  hoc  sibi  negotio 
consentiant  et  subueniant  monet  et  precatur.  Nuntium  quo- 
que  ad  abbatissam  Wlfridam  in  monasterio  quod  uuiltonia 
uocatur  dirigit  et  ut  ad  peragendas  tanti  uiri  exequias  cum 
sibi  commissis  uirginibus  conueniat  denuntiat.  Erat  autem 
in  eodem  monasterio  quedam  uenerabilis  uirgo  soror  ipsius 
sancti  magna  uite  et  morum  honestate  pollens  edgit  nuncu- 
pata  que  supradicti  regis  gloriosissimi  edgari  et  eiusdem 
Wilfride  nondum  deo  consecrate  filia  fuerat.  Quibus  mox 
cum  summa  diligentia  et  ueneratione  conuenientibus  epis- 
copis  quoque  cum  abbatibus  ut  diximus  congregatis  pre- 
dictus  gelfere  exdorsata[m]  non  modicam  uirorum  ac 
mulierum  multitudinem  coadunauit  et  ad  Werham  ubi 
corpus  uiri  dei  sepulture  traditum  fuerat  cum  magna  deuo- 
tione  peruenit.  Quod  protinus  in  conspectu  totius  populi 
detectum  et  a  terra  extractum  ita  ab  omni  corruptione 
illesum  inuentum  est  ac  si  eodem  di,e  tumulatum  fuisset. 
Uidentes  autem  hoc  episcopi  ceterique  ordinis  uiri  in  ymnis 
et  laudibus  omnipotentis  dei  misericordiam  gloricauerunt 
qui  emeriti  martiris  sui  innocentiam  tali  indicio  dignatus 
est  demonstrare.  Predicta  uero  uirgo  soror  ipsius  accurrens 
corpus  desideratissimum  amplectitur  Sanctis  fouet  manibus 
oscula  ingerit.  Lacrimarum  largis  humectationibus  faciem 
rigat  turn  gemitibus  turn  spiritual!  gaudio  de  tanta  fratris 


174  The  English  Saints 

gloria  inentem  nequit  explere.  Tunc  a  uenerabilium 
uiroruni  manibus  susceptuni  et  feretro  impositum  cum 
niagno  cleri  et  plebis  tripudio  ad  scephtoniam  deducitur 
quia  idem  cenobiuin  in  honore  sancte  dei  genitricis  marie 
dedicatuni  admodum  celebre  habebatur.  l-'uerat  enini  a 
diue  nieniorie  aelfredo  rege  magnifico  qui  erat  atauus  ipsius 
sancti  uiri  decentissime  ex  ea  occasione  constructum  quia 
idem  rex  filiam  quandam  habens  aileuam  nomine  eanKjue 
sponso  celesti  desponsare  cupiens  monasticis  disciplinis 
mancipatam  in  eadem  ecclesia  tradiderat  pro  cuius  amore 
plurimis  frequenter  et  largis  muneribus  illam  nobilitauit. 
Nam  inter  reliqua  donorum  suorum  insignia  centum  hidas 
terre  ita  quietas  et  liberas  sicut  ipse  eas  melius  tenuerat 
in  perpetuum  possidendas  ei  condonauit  quarum  usque 
hodie  uirgines  inibi  christofamulantesexperiuntur  beneficia. 
Interea  cum  undique  uulgus  utriusque  sexus  ad  tam  insoli- 
tam  rem  ex  diuersis  locis  confluxisset  duo  etiam  pauperes 
tanta  acerbitate  morbi  contracti  ita  ut  uix  per  terrain 
manibus  cruribusque  repere  possent  inter  ceteros  aduenere 
dominum  sanctumque  eadvvardum  pro  sua  incommoditate 
rogaturi.  Qui  feretro  approximantes  cum  ii  qui  sacrum 
corpus  ferebant  super  eos  pro  recuperanda  sospitate  illud 
deportassent  statim  in  conspectu  populi  sanitati  restituti 
sunt.  Quo  uiso  clamor  populi  in  altum  extollitur  merita 
sancti  eaduvardi  omnes  in  commune  uenerantur.  Regina 
quoque  memorata  interim  audiens  que  per  uirum  sanctum 
fiebant  magnalia  compuncta  super  iis  que  fecerat  equo  mox 
ascenso  post  eum  pro  commisso  suo  ueniam  rogatura  dis- 
posuit  ire  minime  sibi  diuina  ui  resistente  concessum  est. 
Nam  dum  in  itinere  cum  suis  equitaret  satellitibus  ecce 
miro  quodam  et  inestimabili  impedimento  ita  detinebatur 
ut  equus  super  quem  sedebat  retrorsum  potius  quam  in  ante 
uersa  uice  intenderet.  Quem  freno  constringere  uolens  cum 
interdum  hac  interdum  uero  iliac  diuertendo  neque  minis 
neque  uerberibus  proficere  potuisset  animaduertit  peccatis 
suis  exigentibus  sic  se  detineri.  Unde  ilico  de  etjuo  in  terra 
prosiliens  tanquam  ob  maiorem  reuerentiam  pedes  ire  parat 


Appendix  to  Lecture  IV  175 

set  iterum  quod  dictu  mirabile  est  retorta  nichilominus  quod 
concupierat  consequi  ualuit  ut  uidelicet  aperte  clareret  pro 
scelere  quod  in  uirum  dei  operata  est  hec  sibi  euenire. 
Interea  productum  uenerabile  corpus  ad  memoratum  ceno- 
bium  et  a  uirginibus  inibi  deo  seruientibus  digne  et  lauda- 
biliter  receptum  in  septentrionali  parte  are  principalis  cum 
niagno  honore  duodecimo  kalend.  martii  tunmlatur  ubi 
multa  beneficia  per  eum  infirmis  post  hec  diuina  largita  est 
dementia. 

QUEDAM    NAMQUE    MATRONA    IN    REMOTIS  ANGLIE    PARtibuS 

degens  cum  nimia  debilitate  grauaretur  et  cotidie  pro  sua 
incolumitate  preces  in  conspectu  piissimi  opificis  dei  funderet 
nocte  quadam  ei  sanctus  eadvuardvs  in  uisu  astitit  cui  et 
talia  dixisse  fertur.  Cum  diluculo  surrexeris  ad  locum  ubi 
sepulture  traditus  sum  ire  ne  differas  quia  illic  noua  calcia- 
menta  infirmitati  tue  necessaria  recipies.  Erat  enim  ut  ex 
coniectura  colligere  possumus  in  pedibus  grauius  collisa 
ideoque  per  calciamenta  noua  sanitas  pedum  designabatur. 
Euigilans  autem  mane  cum  somnium  quod  uiderat  cuidam 
uicine  sue  retulisset  ilia  uisionis  incredula  fantasma  esse 
asserebat.  Interea  uero  cum  niomentis  sancti  predicta 
matrona  parere  dissimularet  adest  rursus  ei  uir  sanctus  in 
uisione  dicens.  Quare  precepta  mea  respuens  tantopere 
salutem  tuam  negligis  ?  Uade  ergo  ad  sepulchrum  meum 
et  ibi  liberaberis.  Ilia  autem  resumptis  uiribus  dixit  ad 
eum.  Et  quis  es  tu  domine  aut  ubi  sepulchrum  tuum 
inueniam  ?  Cui  ille  ego  inquit  sum  rex  eadvuardus  iniusta 
nuper  nece  peremptus  et  scephtonie  in  ecclesia  beate  dei 
genitricis  marie  sepultus.  Mulier  autem  mane  euigilans  et 
quod  uiderat  secum  reputans  assumptis  mox  que  in  itinere 
necessaria  fuerant  ad  monasterium  tendit.  Ibique  tandem 
perueniens  cum  aliquandiu  deum  sanctumque  eadvuardvm 
humili  corde  exoraret  sanitati  restituta  est.  Preterea 
quoque  ad  tumbam  uiri  dei  plurima  frequenter  patrata  sunt 
miracula  que  negligentia  scriptorum  memorie  litterarum 
minime  tradita  sunt.  Uerum  nos  reticere  naaluimus  quam 
de  sancto  uiro  alia  quam  que  iideliter  scripta  repperimus 


176  The  English  Saints 

ant  que  ficlelium  relatione  didicimus  inconsiderate  dicere- 
mus.'  \'nde  liis  omissis  qualiter  eius  sacratissime  reliquie 
de  terra  leuate  sint  paucis  aperienius.  Igitur  cum  iani 
merita  gloriosi  martiris  euvuardi  miraculorum  magnalibus 
que  cotidie  ad  tumbani  eius  fiebant  longe  lateque  declara- 
rentur  et  superne  iam  dispensationi  ut  eius  sacre  reliquie  a 
terra  leuarentur  complacuisset  cepit  hoc  quibusdam  indiciis 
ipse  sanctus  manifestare  et  quo  ordine  id  fieri  debuissent 
uisionibus  quibusdam  demonstrare.  Nam  tunmlus  in  qm) 
reciuiescebat  tanta  in  dies  facilitate  a  terra  eleuabatur  ut 
liquido  cunctis  appareret  eum  a  loco  illo  uelle  transferri. 
Preterea  quotjue  cuidam  uiro  religioso  in  uisione  apparuit 
cui  et  dixit,  \ade  ad  cenobium  (juod  famoso  nomine 
scephtonia  ucjcatur  et  ad  uirginem  ethelfredam  que  ceteris 
inihi  deo  famulantibus  preest  perfer  mandata.  Dices  ergo 
ei  quia  in  loco  in  quo  nunc  iaceo  diutius  esse  nolo  et  ut  hoc 
I'ratri  meo  absque  aliqua  dilatione  denuntiet  ex  mea  parte 
impera.  Qui  mane  consurgens  et  diuinam  quam  uiderat 
uisionem  intelligens  ad  abbatissam  ut  iussus  fuerat  concite 
tendit  cuncta  c^ue  ostensa  sibi  fuerant  per  ordinem  ei  retulit. 
At  ilia  super  hoc  omnipotenti  deo  gratias  agens  uniuersa 
protinus  auribus  regis  ethelredi  exposuit  set  et  sepulchri 
eius  eleuationem  cum  summa  deuotione  innotuit.  Audiens 
autem  rex  tantam  fratris  sui  gloriam  immenso  perfunditur 
gaudio  et  libenter  quidem  si  oportunitas  daretur  ad  tale 
eius  preconum  conueniret  libenter  eleuationi  eius  interesse 
desideraret.  Set  quoniam  uariis  et  grauibus  hostium  incur- 
sionibus  circumquaque  uallatus  presentiam  suam  ad  id 
peragendum  minime  exibere  potuit  nuntios  ad  reuerenlis- 
simum  Wilsinum  sireburnensem  episcopum  et  ad  quendam 
magne  sanctitatis  presulem  elfsinum  nomine  ceterosque 
uenerabilis  uite  uiros  dirigit  monens  et  imperans  ut  fratris 
sui  corpus  de  terra  eleuatum  condigno  loco  reponerent. 
Qui  secundum  regium  mandatum  ad  supradictum  monas- 
terium  cum  innumerabili  uirorum  ac  mulierum  turba  libenti 
animo  conuenientes  aperto  cum  summa  ueneratione  monu- 
'  MS.  "  deceremub." 


Appendix  to  Lecture  I\'  177 

mento  tanta  ex  eo  odoris  flagrantia  emanauit  ut  omnes  qui 
aderant  in  paradisi  deliciis  se  constitutes  estimarent.  Unde 
etiam  in  tantum  tota  ecclesia  repleta  est  ut  in  moduni 
nebule  candentis  appareret.  Tunc  pontifices  gloriosissimi 
deuote  accedentes  de  tumulo  sacras  delicias  sustulerunt  et 
in  locello  ad  hoc  diligenter  preparato  eas  componentes  in 
sancta  sanctorum  cum  aliis  sanctorum  reliquiis  in  spirituali 
diuine  exultationis  tripudio  intulerunt.  Eleuatum  est  itaque 
sacratissimum  corpus  eius  anno  uicesimo  primo  ex  quo  illic 
tumulatum  fuerat  qui  erat  annus  ab  incarnatione  domini 
millesimus  primus  regnante  eodem  domino  nostro  ihesu 
christo  qui  cum  patre  et  spiritu  sancto  uiuit  et  gloriatur 
deus  per  omnia  secula  seculorum.     Amen. 

Explicit  passio.  Incipiunt  miracula  interuentu 
eiusdem  patrata. 

Plvrima  miracvla  per  sanxtvm  eadwardum  PAtrata 
sunt  de  quibus  pauca  huic  nostro  opuscule  inserere  curau- 
imus.  Temporibus  igitur  regis  gloriosissimi  eadvuardi 
qui  fuerat  supra  memorati  regis  ethelredi  filius  nepos  uidelicet 
sancti  eadwardi  erat  in  transmarinis  partibus  in  pago  uiro- 
mandensi  uir  quidam  iohannes  nomine  degens  qui  cruciatu 
graui  ita  toto  corpore  contractus  fuerat  ut  talis  eius  renibus 
coniimctis  ad  nulla  penitus  membrorum  officia  se  erigere 
posset.  Hie  itaque  in  uisione  nocturna  admonitus  est  ut 
in  angliam  pergens  ad  monasterium  scephtoniam  in  quo 
sanctus  eadvuardus  requiescebat  tenderet  quia  illic  sani- 
tatem  recepturus  esset.  Quod  dum  uicinis  et  cognatis  suis 
retulisset  consilio  et  auxilio  eorum  fretus  mare  transiens  ad 
cenobium  memoratum  post  diuersa  locorum  diuerticula 
tandem  peruenit.  Ubi  dum  aliquanto  tempore  pro  reddenda 
sibi  sospitate  deum  sanctumque  eadvuardvm  deprecaretur 
sanitati  restitutus  est.  Qui  etiam  in  eodem  monasterio 
postea  seruiens  usque  ad  extremum  uite  sue  tempus  per- 
mansit  de  quo  omnes  pene  ibi  manentes  qui  eum  uiderunt 
usque  hodie  testimonium  perhibent. 

Nec  mvlto  post  qvidam  leprosvs  ad  memoriam  eivs- 
dem  sancti  ueniens  cum  morationibus  et  uigiliis  pro  sua 


178  The  English  Saints 

infirmitate  diuinum  inuocaret  auxilium  ab  omni  lepre  ppiir- 
citia  nuindatus  est. 

Alivd  etiam  miraculvm  post  hec  interiecto  aliquant! 
temporis  spatio  per  eundem  uirum  uenerabilein  conti,<^it 
quod  relatione  spectabilium  personarum  que  hoc  uiderunt 
didicimus.  Cum  enim  uir  uenerabilis  heremannus  salesberi- 
ensis  episcopus  ecclesie  quodam  tempore  episcopii  sui  paro- 
cliias  pia  curiositate  circuiret  et  ad  memoratum  cenobium 
scephtoniam  uisitandi  gratia  diuertisset  pauper  quidam  quern 
in  elemosina  sua  pascere  solitus  erat  in  comitatu  suo  aduenit. 
Fuerat  enim  hec  eiusdem  gloriosi  pontificis  pia  consuetudo 
ut  ubicumque  more  cotidiano  iter  arriperet  cum  eo  semper 
nonnulH  debiles  et  infirmi  eius  ahmonia  reficiendi  ducerentur. 
Qui  dum  apud  prefatum  monasterium  ahquandiu  moram 
fecisset  memoratus  cecus  ductu  pueri  a  quo  gressus  eius 
dirigebatur  ecclesiam  oraturus  intrauit.  Vbi  dum  pro  sua 
incommoditate  omnipotentis  dei  pietatem  deuote  implorando 
orationis  cursum  usque  in  uesperum  protraheret  custodes 
in  ecclesia  diligentiam  facientes  eumque  orationi  deditum 
reperientes  egredi  iUum  ortantur  set  ille  nequaquam  se 
egressurum  immo  misericordiam  dei  sanctique  eadvuardi 
iUic  sese  expectaturum  constanter  profitetur.  Quod  illi 
audientes  et  fidem  hominis  admirantes  eum  moratione  iacere 
permittunt  puerum  uero  eius  ad  hospitium  suum  redire 
compellunt.  Interea  dum  in  Icco  illo  aliquandiu  requiesceret 
primo  ingenti  perfusus  frigore  dein  calore  immenso  corpore 
toto  correptus  lumen  recepit.  Quod  dum  mane  diuulgatum 
fuisset  ii  quibus  sanior  mens  inerat  nequaquam  facile  ad 
credendum  persuaderi  poterant  donee  illi  qui  eum  prius 
nouerant  interrogati  sub  testimonio  ueritatis  ilium  ex  multo 
tempore  cecum  fuisse  affirmarent.  Tunc  precepto  episcopi 
in  ecclesia  uirgines  inibi  deo  famulantes  cum  populorum 
concursionibus  congregate  in  himnis  et  laudibus  signis 
interim  pulsantibus  christo  laudum  preconia  excoluerunt 
(jui  hec  meritis  sancti  eadvuardi  operari  dignatus  est. 
Quidam  itidem  homo  grauibus  ob  peccatorum  suorum 
commissa   ferri    ligaminibus   uinculatus   dum    post    hec  in 


Appendix  to  Lectuki-:   I\'  179 

eadem  ecclesia  tanto  deuotius  quanto  acriori  constringebatur 
dolore  in  conspectu  maiestatis  dei  preces  funderet  mentis 
uiri  dei  liberari  meruit.  Preterea  quoque  plurima  per 
merita  ipsius  frequenter  patrata  sunt  magnalia  que  litterarum 
apicibus  minime  tradita  sunt.  Uerum  omnipotenti  domino 
qui  solus  facit  mirabilia  melius  ea  commendantes  ad  eum 
finem  orationis  conuertamus.  Subueniant  itaque  nobis 
piissime  eterni  regis  miles  eaduarde  tua  sancta  patrocinia 
nostreque  imperfectioni  condescendens  tuis  piis  depreca- 
tionibus  optine  apud  misericordissimum  iudicem  ut  nulla 
nos  humane  iactantie  inflatio  deiciat  nulla  nos  libidinum 
inquinamenta  a  castissimis  celestis  sponsi  amplexibus  se- 
parant  nulle  uitiorum  sordes  actus  nostros  occupent  set  te 
opitulante  semper  ad  celestia  desideria  sulleuemur  ut  quando- 
que  tecum  et  cum  omnibus  Sanctis  perpetuis  deliciis  in 
celesti  ierusalem  perfrui  mereamur  prestante  domino  nostro 
ihesu  christo  qui  cum  eterno  patre  et  amborum  spiritu 
sancto  uiuit  et  regnat  deus  per  immortalia  secula  seculorum. 
Amen, 

[The  manuscript  from  which  diis  Life  of  S.  Edward  is  now 
printed  for  the  first  time  is  of  the  twelfth  century.  The  Fass/o  et 
niiracula  occupy  from  f.  39  to  f.  46  of  the  151  leaves  of  the  whole 
book.  With  it  are  a  life  and  miracles  of  S.  Oswald  the  archbishop, 
attributed  to  Eadmer,  the  same  of  S.  Mary  Magdalen,  Goscelin's 
De  advoihc  S.  Augitstini^  a  letter  to  S.  Anselm  concerning  the 
translation  of  S.  Augustine,  the  miracles  of  S.  Lethard,  the  canons 
of  the  Council  of  London  1138,  and  the  letter  of  S.  Bernard  to 
Eugenius  III.  as  to  the  rank  of  the  sees  of  York  and  Winchester. 
These  are  all  in  the  same  twelfth  century  hand.  In  a  later  hand 
are  three  thirteenth  century  additions.  The  MS.  was  once  the 
property  of  Simon  Enyrton,  vicar  choral  of  the  cathedral  church 
of  Wells.  It  is  not  known  how  it  came  in  the  library  of  S.  John 
Baptist  College  at  Oxford,  but  it  was  probably  the  gift  of  the 
founder.  Sir  Thomas  White. 

The  Life  and  Miracles  vary  considerably  from  those  which  are 
better  known,  but  are  evidently  merely  a  recension  from  different 
sources.  Other  lives  have  been  attributed  to  Eadmer,  and  it  is 
possible  that  this  may  represent  one  stage  of  bis  work.      It  is 

12 — 2 


i8o  The  English  Saints 

printed  here  as  a  typical  medieval  saint-life,  containing  all  tbe 
characteristic  features  of  hagiology.  It  is  evidently  written  by 
one  who  was  well  acquainted  with  early  English  history.  It  lays 
stress  on  the  moral  virtues  of  the  boy-king,  and  is  especially 
emphatic  on  the  character  of  the  step-mother  and  her  part  in 
the  murder.  The  first  miracles,  as  in  most  of  the  accounts,  are 
described  as  occurring  very  soon  after  the  martyrdom  :  while 
others,  perhaps  collected  with  a  view  to  the  canonization,  are 
added  of  a  later  date  and  a  less  direct  connection  with  the  saint. 
The  association  with  Shaftesbury  is  especially  to  be  noted.] 


LECTURE  V 
THE  IDEAL  OF  MONK  AND  HERMIT 

"  The  wilderness  and  the  solitary  place  shall  be  glad  for  them,  and 
the  desert  shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose." — Isaiah  xxxv.  i. 

England  in  her  early  days  owed  more  than  can  ever 
be  estimated  to  the  practical  work  of  the  monks  and  to 
the  ideal  of  the  monastic  society.  Out  of  the  oppressive 
monotony  of  a  life  of  daily  bloodshed  and  danger,  tine 
spirits  passed  into  the  calm  of  prayer  and  labour  for 
others.  The  law  of  social  life  was  sought  in  self- 
devotion,  not  in  despotism  or  self-indulgence :  the 
treasures  of  wisdom  were  to  be  hallowed  by  obedience 
to  the  law  of  Christ.^ 

It  is  no  part  of  the  aim  of  these  lectures  to  deal  in 
any  detail  with  the  growth  of  Christianity  in  England. 
Characters  come  before  us  individually,  not  in  special 
relation  to  the  history  of  their  age.  And  yet  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that 

"  the  music 
Of  man's  fair  composition  best  accords 
When  'tis  in  concert  not  in  single  strains." 

1  Cf.  Bishop  Westcott,  Words  of  Faith  and  Hope,  p.  9,  on  Saint 
Benedict,  and  the  significant  contrasts  which  were  emphasized  in 
his  place  of  training  and  his  first  monastery. 

[  181  ] 


i82  The  English  Saints 

Man}-  of  the  j^reat  leaders  of  Christian  effort  in  the 
early  ages  of  the  Church  owed  their  strength  to  the 
fact  that  they  acted  together,  that  their  work  was 
inspired  by  the  influence,  the  esprit  dc  corps,  of  a 
religious  society,  of  a  monastic  brotherhood.  Such 
conspicuously  was  Aidan,  the  second  great  missionary 
to  Northumbria.  As  an  apostle  he  can  hardly  be  set 
beside  S.  Augustine,^  the  apostle  of  England.  In  that 
respect  he  must  yield  to  Paulinus- ;   and   Birinus  and 

^  I  venture  to  quote  liere  a  private  letter  from  the  great  Church 
historian  who  was  so  long  our  beloved  teacher  in  Oxford,  Dr. 
William  Bright.  It  was  written  on  S.  Chad's  day  1898  to  Rev. 
C.J.  Day — ".  ...  I  do  not  admit  that,  in  regard  to  '  apostleship,' 
Augustine  and  Aidan  are  on  a  par.  Aidan's  work  was  moie  exten- 
sive and  lasted  longer  than  Augustine's,  and  his  character  is  more 
beautiful  and  attractive.  But  he  was  not,  properly  speaking, 
'apostle'  even  of  the  Northumbrians,  and  he  did  nothing  at  all  for 
any  outside  their  borders.  He  was  not  their  'apostle'  because  he 
was  not  their  first  evangelist.  The  mischief  done  to  historical 
proportion  in  this  matter  by  Lightfoot's  uncritical  antithesis 
(prompted,  no  doubt,  by  the  natural  pietas  of  a  bishop  of  Durham) 
has  jjccn  incalculable."  See  Lightfoot's  Leaders  in  the  Northern 
Chunh.  (This  and  the  letter  in  the  next  note  are,  I  find,  to  be 
given  in  Dr.  Bright's  Letters,  cd.  Ijy  B.J.  Kidd,  1902,  pp.  219, 
220.) 

-  "  Paulinus  did  not  fail,  considering  the  short  time  that  he 
had  for  missionary  work.  He  obtained  the  national  adhesion  of 
Northumbria  to  Christianity:  he  laboured  mainly,  of  course,  in 
Deira  or  Yorkshire,  but  we  find  him  catechizing  and  baptizing  for 
weeks  together  in  a  remote  valley  of  Northumberland — I  mean,  of 
the  county  which  we  thus  name.  '  His  labours,'  says  Canon  Raine 
in  his  history  of  the  Archbishoprick  of  York  'must  have  been 
prodigious,'  and  it  is  obvious  that  all  this  work  could  not  possibly, 
as  the  '  Aidanolaters '  are  pleased  to  assume,  have  been  undone  in 
the  space  of  a  single  year,  which  intervened  between  the  death  of 
Edwin  and  the  accession  of  Oswald.  There  are  clear  indications 
in  Bede's  language  that  there  were  permanent  effects  of  Paulinus' 
work  existing  which  Aidan  found  when  he  arrived  :  that  he  often,  in 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  183 

Chad  were  perhaps  greater  than  he  in  the  direct  work 
that  they  accompHshed.  But  in  beauty  of  character 
he  was  surpassed  by  no  medieval  saint.  He  combined 
the  ideals  of  the  missionary  and  the  monk.  In  his 
settlement  at  Lindisfarne,  the  Holy  Isle  near  to  the 
palace  of  the  Bernician  Kings  at  Bamborough,  he 
found  a  place  of  seclusion  like  that  at  lona  from  which 
he  came,  a  home  at  which  monks  could  be  trained  in 
learninsr,  awav  from  the  distractions  of  the  world,  and 


•to' 


'ay 


a  quiet  resting-place  after  the  long  journeys  which  he 
took  to  preach  the  Gospel.  The  story  of  Aidan  is 
coloured  by  the  longing  for  a  separate  life  among 
kindred  spirits  attuned  to  the  same  thoughts  and 
studies  and  to  the  same  rule  of  prayer,  which  found  its 
outward  setting  most  fitly  at  lona  or  Lindisfarne. 

"  Pure  saintliness,"  the  "  attraction  of  a  simple  self- 
devotion  "  are  the  features  in  his  character  on  which 
one  dwelt  who  was  well  fitted  to  appreciate  what 
he  himself  so  beautifully  embodied.^  He  set,  indeed, 
"  a  pattern  of  ministerial  activity,  of  absolute  con- 
spicuous unworldlines5,  of  tenderness  to  the  poor  and 
weak,  in  boldness  in  behalf  of  right  before  the  strong, 
of  thoroughgoing  intense  resolution  to  carry  out  in  life 
the  moral  teaching  of  Scripture."- 


short,  had  not  to  lay  the  foundation,  but  to  build  upon  it." — Letter 
from  Dr.  W.  Bright,  March  4,  1898. 

This  view,  which  a  close  study  of  Bede  fully  justifies,  was  written 
in  comment  on  such  expressions  of  Dr.  Lightfoot's  as  "  The  Roman 
mission,  despite  all  the  feverish  energy  of  its  chief,  had  proved  a 
failure.  A  sponge  had  passed  over  Northumbria,  and  scarce  a 
vestige  of  his  work  remained,"  Leaders  in  the  Northern  Church,  p.  41. 

1  W.  Bright,  Way  marks  in  Church  History,  p.  316. 

-'  Ibid. 


184  The  English  Saints 

Gentleness  is  his  first  characteristic.  It  is  told  of 
him  as  of  S.  Anselm  that  his  first  great  call  came  to 
him  through  his  pleading  for  patience  and  wise  dis- 
cretion in  the  beginnings  of  missionary  work.^  And 
his,  says  Bede,  was  the  greatest  of  all  commendations 
of  doctrine,  for  as  he  taught,  he  lived.  He  cared  not 
to  seek  or  love  anything  in  this  world,  but  everything 
he  had  he  rejoiced  to  give  away.  He  had  that  passion 
for  souls  which  in  the  born  missionary  overpowers  all 
reticence  and  reserve.  As  he  went  about  on  foot- 
through  the  little  towns,  along  the  broad  Roman 
streets,  or  by  the  sheep-tracks  over  the  moors,  whcre- 
ever  he  saw  folk,  rich  or  poor,  straightway  he  turned 
to  them,  urging  them  if  they  were  still  heathens  to 
accept  the  mystery  of  the  faith  in  a  pure  conscience, 
stirring  them  up  if  they  were  believers  to  works  of 
charity  and  almsgiving  and  strengthening  them  in  the 
faith.  This  absorption  in  his  work  of  conversion  was 
possible  to  him  because  he  was,  with  his  brethren  of 
the  monastery,  clerk  and  lay,  constant  in  the  exercise 
of  meditation,  without  which  progress  in  the  ways  of 
God,  now  as  then,  seems  not  to  be  attained.     He  was 

^  Bede,  iii.  3.  C/.  L'yghtfoot,  op.  a7.,i:i.  44and  pass///!.  Of  many 
accounts  of  S.  Aidan  perhaijs  the  best,  the  fullest,  and  the  most 
sympathetic  is  that  of  W.  Hunt,  History  of  the  Eiii^/ish  Chunk, 
597-1066,  pp.  77  sqq. 

'  As  a  comment  on  the  story  of  the  King's  gift  which  Aidan  at 
once  gave  away,  note  Abp.  Benson,  Life.,  ii.  147.  "So  Henson  at 
the  Congress  held  it  a  mark  of  saintliness  in  Aidan  that  he  would 
not  ride,  because  he  was  the  Apostle  of  Christ,  apparently  in  some 
sort  of  contrast  with  us  — and  perhaps  it  may  have  been.  But  what 
would  S.  Aidan  have  done  if  he  had  had  to  attend  four  committees 
in  a  morning  in  London?  It  would  not  have  been  very  saintly, 
but  very  agreeable  to  cut  them  because  he  would  not  ride  to  them." 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  185 

always  reading  and  discussing  the  Scriptures  with  those 
among  whom  he  was  placed.  From  them  he  learnt 
"  neither  to  flatter  nor  fear  any  flesh  " ;  to  buy  the  freedom 
of  those  who,  whether  by  law  or  kidnapped,  had  been 
sold  into  slavery,  and  to  train  them  for  the  ministry ; 
to  be  merciful  and  tender  to  the  poor,  and  to  the 
miserable  a  father  indeed.  Marked  out  at  first  for  his 
mission  by  the  grace  of  discretion,  when  he  came  to  it 
he  was  found  to  be  adorned  with  every  other  excel- 
lence. Such  is  Bede's  praise,  and  it  represents  the  im- 
pression that  he  made  on  his  age.  The  quietness  and 
confidence  of  his  life,  no  less  than  its  activity,  made 
men  speak  of  his  death-day  when  they  commemorated 
it  as  "  Aidan's  rest." 

Columba  and  Aidan  gave  to  the  Christianity  of  the 
north  something  of  the  Celtic  enthusiasm  and  fire,  but 
their  greater  offering  was  the  insistence  on  work  in 
combination,  on  the  ideal  of  joint  labour,  which  Irish 
monasticism  at  its  best,  and  in  its  marvellous  mis- 
sionary successes,  so  happily  embodied.  Aidan  gathered 
round  him  a  school  of  disciples,  twelve  boys  whom  he 
loved  and  trusted,  and  from  whom  came  the  apostles 
of  the  mid-English  Chad  and  Cedd,  Eata  who  became 
bishop  of  his  own  see,^  and  Wilfrith,  all  reckoned 
among  the  saints.  Bede  speaks  of  their  success  as 
certain,  from  their  training,  "for  he  was  one  of  the 
disciples  of  Aidan  .  .  .  one  of  Aidan's  twelve  boys.""'^ 

As  Aidan  is  linked  to  Columba,  so  is  Cuthbert  to 
Aidan.     Already  in  Aidan's  lifetime  men  had  taken  his 

1  For  Eata,  see  Life  in  the  volume  published  by  the  Surtees 
Society  in  1838. 

2  Bede,  iii.  26,  28. 


i86  Tin:  English  Saints 

acts  of  faith  or  foresight  to  be  miracles  of  God.  When 
Penda  besieged  Bamborough  and  tried  to  set  tire  to 
the  walls,  Aidan  at  Lindisfarne  saw  the  smoke  and 
flames  leaping  up  and  cried  aloud  "  See,  Lord,  how 
great  mischief  Penda  doth."  The  wind  changed  and 
the  city  was  safe.^  Tht'  \cry  post  against  which  he 
leant,  by  the  church  wall,  as  he  was  dying,  seemed 
miraculously  preserved.  No  wonder  that  it  was  a 
bright  vision  of  angels  bearing  his  soul  to  heaven 
which  warned  Cuthbert,  as  by  night  he  was  with  the 
shepherds  watching  their  flocks,  and  made  him  resolve 
to  be  a  monk.-  Aidan  and  Oswine,  bishop  and  king, 
who  had  worked  together  for  Christ,  were  soon  for- 
gotten^: but  their  work  lived  in  their  successors:  and 
the  greatest  of  these  was  Cuthbert. 

Cuthbcrfs  character,  perhaps  because  his  life  is  so 
fully  told  by  the  first  of  our  great  historians,  is  the 
most  fascinating  of  all  those  which  the  Church  among 
the  north  English  produced.  Bright,  buoyant,  a  strong 
brave  lad,  fond  of  all  boyish  sports,  of  wrestling  and 
leaping,  a  champion  and  an  orator  among  his  fellows,' 

'  Aloclern  parallels  known  to  all  are  the  change  of  wind  just  as 
the  fire  was  approaching  the  Church  of  S.  Giles's,  Cripplegate, 
and  the  several  occasions  during  the  siege  of  the  Legations  at 
Peking  when  the  wind  changed  just  as  it  seemed  certain  to  destroy 
the  houses  and  barricades  that  separated  the  besieged  from  the 
Chinese  troops.     The  parallel  in  each  case  is  complete. 

"  Bede,  Vita  Ciithberit,  c.  4. 

3  Viia  Os-cu.  (Surtees  Soc),  p.  46.  A  priest  knew  nothing  of 
Oswine  and  had  not  even  heard  the  name  of  Aidan. 

■*  The  story  given  by  Bede,  Vita  Ciith.,  2,  is  a  very  interesting 
example  of  the  origin  of  many  miraculous  legends.  In  modern 
language  Cuthbert  "got  water  on  the  knee"  from  a  strain  in  one 
of  his  sports,  and  as  he  continued  to  use  the  limb  it  grew  worse  till 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  187 

he  gave  his  heart  to  God  when  he  was  still  a  boy,  and 
trusted  himself  to  Him  Who  ever  giveth  ear  to  the 
poor  and  delivereth  him  out  of  all  his  troubles.  In 
the  country  round  his  home  on  the  banks  of  the  Tyne, 
Christianity  had  made  but  little  way :  the  villagers, 
when  a  calamity  came  upon  them,  would  mock  at 
those  who  had  taken  away  their  old  pagan  worship 
while  no  one  knew  how  to  observe  the  new  faith. ^  The 
moors  were  desolate :  in  a  day's  wandering  no  man 
might  be  met,  no  food  found,  save,  as  it  seemed,  by  the 
help  of  God.-  Cuthbert  showed  his  passion  for  the  life 
of  a  solitary  before  he  gave  himself  to  be  trained  at 
Melrose.  There  he  was  more  diligent  than  all,  in 
prayer  and  study,  and  in  the  work  which  S.  Benedict's 
rule  enjoined.  Legend  soon  settled  round  these  happy 
years  of  his  youth.  Men  told  how  he  conversed  with 
angels,  how  he  was  caught  up  into  the  third  heaven  : 
but  these  tales  do  not  mar  the  simpHcity  of  the  record 
of  his  quiet  work,  of  his  reading — it  is  a  typical  instance 
— in  the  Gospel  of  S.  John  with  the  aged  abbat  on  his 
deathbed,  before  he  passed  into  the  joys  of  everlasting 
life.  From  his  own  deeply-rooted  love  of  retirement 
he  turned,  when  he  rose  to  office  in  the  house,  to  active 
preaching  in  the  villages,  "  into  high  hills  and  far 
steads  where  priests  bade  but  few  bedes."^ 

a  stranger  advised  him  to  poultice  it,  whereupon  it  recovered. 
Cuthbert  took  his  kind  adviser  for  an  angel :  and  Bede  assures  his 
readers  that  there  were  "  angels  on  horseback." 

1  Bede,  Vita  Cuth.,  3. 

-  See  the  story  which  Bede  heard  from  Ingwald,  to  whom 
Cuthbert  told  it,  and  cf.  also  c.  9. 

^  Metrical  Life  (Surtees  Soc,  1891),  p.  48. 


i88  The  English  Saints 

It  was  the  custom  in  those  days  among  the  English, 
says  Bede,  when  a  clerk  or  priest  came  to  a  village,  for 
all  to  flock  around  him  to  hear  the  Word.  To  Cuth- 
bert  the  country  life  was  always  homely  and  delightful. 
He  had  loved  to  tend  sheep  among  the  shepherds  when 
he  was  a  boy,  though  he  had  his  own  servant,  his  horse 
and  his  military  equipment.  Now,  where  others  would 
not  go  for  fear  of  the  wild  solitudes,  among  the  rugged 
hills  he  wandered  happily,  staying  weeks  at  a  time 
among  the  poor  folk  and  winning  them  to  the  ways  of 
God.  When  the  people  came  around  him,  "so  great," 
says  Bede,  "  was  his  skill  in  speaking,  so  intense  his 
eagerness  to  make  his  words  persuasive,  such  a  glow 
lighted  up  his  angelic  face,  that  no  one  of  those  present 
dared  to  hide  from  Cuthbert  the  secrets  of  his  heart ; 
all  revealed  openly^  by  confession  what  they  had  done, 
for  in  truth  they  supposed  that  he  must  needs  be  aware 
of  those  very  deeds  of  theirs  ;  and  after  confession  the\- 
wiped  away  their  sins  at  his  bidding,  b}-  worthy  fruits 
of  penance.'"- 

In  this  work,  blessing  and  being  blessed,  men  and 
animals  alike  trusting  him,^  he  passed  many  happy 
years,  till  he  was  called  to  Lindisfarne  "  that  he  might 
there  also  teach  the  rule  of  monastic  perfection  with 
the  authority  of  a  prior  and  set  it  forth  by  a  virtuous 
example."^  There  he  first  set  forth  the  rule  of  S.  Bene- 
dict clearly  to  the  brethren  :    and  like  most  of  those 

^  Dr.  Bright,  Early  English  Church  History,  p.  317,  quoting 
Bede  adds  '"'■palam,  in  the  sense  of  hiding  nothing  from  him." 

2   Vita  Cuth.,  c.  9. 

^  Cf.  caps.  10  and  15. 

■*  Bede,  H.  Eccl.  iv.  25.  This  from  Lindisfarne  Annals,  Pertz 
M.H.G.i  •'^i-'^-  504  sliould  be  664  :  but  cf.  Bright,  op.  cit.,  p.  273. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  189 

who  at  different  times  endeavoured  a  monastic  reforma- 
tion, he  met  with  hard  treatment^  from  the  monks. 
Cheerfuhiess,  patience,  watchfulness,  unceasing  prayer, 
these  carried  him  to  success.  It  was  his  absolute  devo- 
tion to  God  that  gave  him  at  last  the  love  and  the 
obedience  of  all.  The  strength  of  his  soul  was  the 
weekly  offering  of  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Lord's  Body  and 
Blood,  which  he  could  never  finish  without  tears.'' 
Thus  Bede  ends  the  picture  of  his  life  at  Lindisfarne  : 
"  Whilst  he  was  in  regular  course  celebrating  the 
mysteries  of  our  Lord's  Passion,  he  would  himself 
imitate  what  he  was  doing,  by  offering  himself  to  God 
in  contrition  of  heart.  And  when  he  stood  by  at  the 
Sursuin  Corda  and  Habeimis  ad  Dominum  it  was  rather 
his  heart  than  his  voice  that  was  uplifted." 

True  devotion  made  him  a  wise  pastor.  "  He  had 
an  ardent  zeal  for  righteousness,  in  reproving  sinners ; 
yet  in  the  spirit  of  meekness  he  was  tender  in  pardoning 
those  who  repented :  so  that  sometimes  when  his 
penitents  were  confessing  their  sins  to  him  he  himself 
would  be  the  first  to  take  compassion  on  their  infirmi- 
ties by  shedding  tears." 

The  whole  record  is  one  of  extreme  simplicity :  even 
the  added  touches  and  the  supposed  miracles  that  Bede 
gives  do  not  alter  the  impression  of  the  earliest  Life. 
Cuthbert  was  a  man  of  God,  in  severity  of  life  after 
the  manner  of  Elijah  or  S.  John  Baptist,  in  gentleness 
like  Anselm  or  Francis  of  Assisi.  Gradually,  moving 
to  the  little  isle  of  Fame,  he  began  to  withdraw  himself 
from  the  corporate  life  of  the  monks  and  to  live  alone, 

'  "  Vel  animo  vel  corpori,"  Bede,  Vita  C71/I1.,  c.  16. 
-  Cf.  Memorials  of  Duns/an,  pp.  50,  379. 


iQo  The  Exgt.tsh  Saints 

rarely  holdinf^  converse  with  those  that  came  to  him, 
and  this  only  by  the  window.  At  last  he  came  never 
to  open  his  window  save  only  to  give  his  blessing  or 
for  some  absolute  need.  Still  he  knew  how  to  console 
the  mourner,  to  comfort  the  feeble  minded,  to  succour 
the  tempted.  Faith  and  love  he  ever  showed  to  be  the 
safeguards  of  Christian  life  :  with  such  support  he  could 
still  at  every  time  be  joyful  and  glad  :  and  those  who 
came  to  him  in  doubt  or  for  consolation  always  went 
awa}-  refreshed.  At  last  he  was  drawn  from  his  retreat, 
by  the  urgent  prayers  of  King  Ecgfrith,  to  be  bishop  : 
and  a  true  successor  of  the  Apostles  he  proved  himself 
by  every  act  of  teaching  and  admonition,  of  charity 
and  diligence  and  self-denial.  The  fruits  of  his  mission 
were  like  those  of  the  early  days.  At  one  place  when 
he  came  to  give  confirmation  tents  were  set  up  for 
church  and  for  his  shelter,  and  the  people  made  huts 
of  the  forest  trees  to  dwell  in  while  for  two  days  he 
ministered  and  preached.  Everywhere  his  sane  words 
and  the  soothing  calmness  of  his  touch  wrought  cures. 
It  was  this  sense  of  living  above  the  world  that  gave 
power  to  the  warnings  which  came  to  him  and  which  he 
imparted  to  others.  In  earlier  years  when  he  was  at 
Fame  some  monks  of  Holy  Isle  had  come  to  him  on 
Christmas  Day.  They  begged  him  to  leave  his  cell 
and  join  them  in  the  guest  house.  He  consented.  As 
they  were  at  dinner,  he  said  to  them  "  I  beseech  you, 
brethren,  let  us  live  cautiously  and  watchfully  lest 
perchance  through  carelessness  or  over-security  we  be 
led  into  temptations."  They  answered  "  Let  us  spend 
to-day  in  gladness,  for  it  is  the  birthday  of  our  Lord."' 
"  Let  us  do  so,"  said  he.     Then  while  they  were  eating 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  191 

and  telling  old  tales  he  began  once  more  to  warn. 
Again  they  protested,  that  there  were  enough  days  of 
vigil  and  fast,  and  that  on  this  day  they  should  rejoice 
with  the  angels  and  men  of  goodwill.  Again  he  said 
"  Good,  let  us  so  rejoice  '":  but  again  he  found  himself 
compelled  to  warn.  And  so  they  yielded  and  ended 
the  day  in  prayer  and  watchfulness.  Next  day  the 
monks  heard  that  plague  had  broken  out  at  Lindis- 
farne  :  and  within  a  year  almost  the  whole  of  that 
noble  company  of  fathers  and  brothers  had  departed  to 
the  Lord.^ 

Cuthbert  told  this  tale  of  himself  in  a  sermon  at 
Carlisle,  when  the  weight  of  impending  calamity  was 
again  weighing  upon  him.  The  day  before,  as  he  had 
walked  through  the  city,  seeing  the  Roman  remains, 
under  guidance  of  the  reeve,  he  had  received  a  strange 
impression  of  sorrow,  and,  thinking  of  the  war  in  which 
the  King  Ecgfrith  was  engaged  in  the  distant  North, 
had  murmured  "  perhaps  even  at  this  moment  the 
hazard  of  the  fight  is  over."  Therefore  he  now  cried 
again  "  Watch,  stand  fast  in  the  faith,  quit  yourselves 
like  men."  Next  day  came  one  escaped  from  the  battle, 
and  told  how  Ecgfrith  had  fallen  on  Nechtansmere 
with  his  thegns  around  him  in  death. 

It  seemed  not  strange  that  he  should  know  what 
God  was  doing  elsewhere,  when  He  was  so  close  to  his 
own  heart.  He  returned  whenever  he  could  from  the 
duties  of  his  office  to  the  solitude  of  Fame.  There, 
amid  the  wrack  of  storm  and  the  ceaseless  lap  of  the 
ocean  waves,  Cuthbert  grew  to  live  more  and  more 
alone,  with  the  wild  eider-ducks,  who  would  nestle  in 
1  Bede,  Viia  Cuth.,  c.  27. 


ig2  The  English  Saints 

his  bosom,  for  his  companions,  tormented  by  strange 
visions  of  temptation,  and  knowing  that  he  drew  near 
to  his  end.  It  was  on  March  20,  651,  that  he  died. 
For  many  weeks  he  had  seen  the  end  approach,  and 
his  stone  coffin  lay  ready  in  his  cell,  with  fine  linen,  the 
gift  of  many  years  before.  To  the  last  he  was  gentle 
and  patient,  and  spoke  of  peace  and  humility  and 
Christian  concord :  so  before  dawn,  having  received 
the  Sacrament  after  matins,  he  lifted  up  his  eyes, 
stretched  forth  his  hands,  and,  his  soul  intent  on  the 
heavenly  lands,  he  departed  to  the  joys  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven. 

Thus  Bede  ends  the  tale  which  he  had  learnt  from  one 
of  Cuthbert's  own  monks. ^  It  is  a  story  which  explains 
the  abounding  enthusiasm  of  generation  after  generation 
for  the  great  saint  of  the  North.  Cuthbert  had  every- 
thing which  the  Northern  folk  admired,  needed,  and 
came  at  last  to  find  characteristic  of  all  that  is  best  of 
the  men  of  the  old  Northumbria.  He  was  strong  and 
energetic,  full  of  buoyant  gaiety,  yet  stern,  self-contained, 
ascetic,  distrustful  of  enthusiasm,  shrewd  in  insight  and 
foresight,  and  at  the  root  a  simple  servant  of  Christ. 

^  The  first  life  is  the  anonymous  one,  written  by  a  monk  of  Lin- 
disfarne,  from  which  come  practically  all  the  facts  we  know  of 
S.  Cuthbert.  It  is  printed  in  Bede,  Opera  Minora^  ed.  Stevenson, 
259-284.  In  the  same  volume  are  the  two  lives  by  Bede  himself, 
prose  and  verse,  the  former  of  which  was  submitted  to  the  correc- 
tion of  the  Lindisfarne  monks,  from  whom  traditions  had  been 
gathered.  An  interesting  English  Metrical  Life,  c.  1450,  was  pub- 
lished by  the  Surtees  Society  1891.  Reginald  of  Durham,  Libellus  de 
Admirandis,  etc.  (Surtees  Soc),  is  one  of  the  series  of  hagiological 
works  inspired  by  Alfred  of  Rievaulx  in  the  12th  century.  Nova 
Legenda,  i.  216  ."^qq.,  is  a  very  interesting  composite  life.  See  also 
two  lives  in  Surtees  Soc,  1838. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  193 

Beautiful  stories  clustered  round  his  memory,  miracles 
of  loving  kindness.  Men  turned  back  again  and  again, 
in  the  confident  memory  of  his  sanctity,  to  the  psalm 
the  monks  of  Lindisfarne  were  singing  when  the  light  of 
the  candles  flickered  across  from  Fame  and  told  that 
the  saint  was  with  his  Saviour.  Dens  repulisti  nos. 
"  O  God,  Thou  hast  cast  us  out  and  scattered  us 
abroad  :  Thou  hast  also  been  displeased  :  O  turn  Thee 
unto  us  again.  O  be  Thou  our  help  in  trouble,  for 
vain  is  the  help  of  man."  In  all  the  years  of  distress 
that  befell  the  North,  the  memory  of  Cuthbert  was  an 
abiding  call  to  courage  and  hope.  Round  the  bones 
of  the  samt,  which  were  carried,  according  to  his 
pathetic  request,  by  the  monks  of  Lindisfarne  when 
they  fled  from  the  Danes,  were  gathered  the  relics  of 
S.  Oswald  and  of  Bede  the  venerable  and  of  many 
other  holy  men,  when  at  last  they  found  a  shrine  of 
matchless  dignity  in  the  great  cathedral  church  of 
Durham.  This  was  the  last  resting-place  till  the  disso- 
lution and  spoliation  :  and  even  after,  and  to  this  day, 
the  bones  of  Cuthbert  with  the  head  of  Oswald  are  laid 
in  the  great  northern  church.^ 

1  But  unhappily,  not  undisturbed.  A  full  account  of  the  history 
of  the  relics  is  to  be  found  in  the  extremely  interesting- and  valuable 
(though  very  quaint)  Sami  Cuthbert^  by  James  Raine,  1828.  Cf. 
with  the  indignant  comment  of  Archbishop  Benson  on  the  ecclesi- 
astical ghouls  of  Canterbury  the  following  pitiable  sentence,  Diet. 
Christian  Biography^  vol.  i.,  p.  727.  "  The  bones  of  Cuthbert,  with 
the  skull  of  Oswald,  were  reinterred  [after  the  opening  of  the 
grave  in  1827]  .  .  .  but  the  more  iiiteresting  conte7its  of  the  cojfin 
were  removed  and  are  now  exhibited  to  the  public  in  the  library  of 
the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Durham."  In  1899  it  was  decided  again 
to  examine  the  grave  and  "  the  human  remains."  The  examination 
revealed  the  unhappy  results  of  that  undertaken  in   1827.     The 

13 


194  The  English  Saints 

With  the  story  of  the  Lindisfarne  Gospels  we  may 
pass  away  from  the  holy  memory  of  Cuthbcrt.  It  can- 
not be  better  told  than  in  the  words  of  one  of  the  wisest 
and  holiest  of  his  successors.  The  book  was  Cuthberfs 
own,  which  the  monks  of  Lindisfarne  carried  with  them 
on  their  wanderings.  "  They  set  sail  for  Ireland  ;  a 
storm  arose ;  the  book  fell  overboard  and  was  lost  ; 
they  were  driven  back  to  the  English  coast  ;  discon- 
solate they  went  in  search  of  the  precious  volume ;  for 
a  long  time  they  searched  in  vain  ;  but  at  length  (so 
says  the  story)  a  miraculous  revelation  was  vouchsafed 
to  them,  and  following  its  directions  they  found  the 
book  on  the  sands,  far  above  high-water  mark,  un- 
injured by  the  waves,  nay,  even  more  beautiful  for  the 
disaster."-     A  parable,  we  may  well  delight  to  thmk  it, 


bones  were  now  laid  in  proper  order  ("a  rather  solemn  and  impres- 
sive task  "  writes  the  Roman  Catholic  clergyman  who  was  present) 
{Ushaw  Magazine^  July,  1899,  p.  127)  and  placed  in  a  new  coffin, 
and  so  the  "  sacred  relics  were  once  more  laid  to  rest."  It  is  added 
that  "  within  the  coffin  was  placed  a  bottle  containing  a  Church- 
man's Almanack  for  1899  and  a  properly  attested  account  of  the 
recent  investigations."  Archcrologia,  Series  II.,  vol.  vii.,  pp.  1 1  sc/q. 
-  Lightfoot,  Leaders  in  the  Nortliern  C/iu7rh,  pp.  76,  77.  The 
book  is  in  the  British  Museum  MS.  Cotton,  Nero,  D.  iv.,  still 
marked  with  the  stain  of  sea-water.  Bishop  Browne,  Notes  on  the 
remains  of  the  original  Church  0/  S.  Peter  Monkivearmouth  ahd 
on  so7)ie  of  the  sculptured  stones  found  in  the  restoration,  p.  1 4, 
shows  how  on  a  fragment  of  stone  at  Monkwearmouth  is  the 
same  design  as  the  Lindisfarne  gospels,  and  he  adds  "  No  one 
can  turn  over  the  pages  of  that  marvellous  volume  in  its  home  in 
the  British  Museum,  noting  the  stains  of  salt  water  from  its  immer- 
sion in  the  sea  when  the  monks  fled  before  the  Danes  with  the 
body  of  S.  Cuthbert,  without  feeling  a  special  thrill  when  he  comes 
to  the  last  page  and  reads  tlic  record  of  those  who  wrote  it,  and 
beautified  it,  and  made  a  case  for  it.  '  Eadfrith,  bishop  of  the 
Church  of  Lindisfarne,  he  this  book  wrote  at  first,  for  God,  and 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  195 

of  the  preservation  of  truth  handed  down  and  imaged 
forth  in  the  hves  of  good  men. 

From  Cuthbert  we  may  naturally  turn  to  one  who 
filled  a  greater  space  in  the  active  history  of  the  time 
than  he,  and  whose  life  was  in  every  way  a  contrast  to 
his.  Wilfrith  seems  to  recall  in  many  a  point  the 
Celtic  fervour  and  impetuosity,  while  Cuthbert  is  purely 
Teutonic.  Wilfrith's  life  was  long  and  romantic,  a  life 
of  struggle  and  variety  of  lot.  He  had  every  natural 
gift.  He  was  pleasant  in  address  to  all,  sagacious  in 
mind,  strong  in  body,  swift  of  foot,  ready  for  every 
good  work,  with  a  face  that  in  its  unclouded  cheerful- 
ness betokened  a  blessed  mind.^  A  missionary,  a  true 
apostle  in  Frisia,  in  Sussex  and  in  Wight,  the  friend 
and  adviser  of  kings,  at  heart  and  most  of  all  S.  Wil- 
frith was  a  reformer,  and  the  great  aim  of  his  life  was 
to  raise  the  churches  in  Britain  by  uniting  them  more 
closely  to  the  churches  abroad.  Art,  musical  and 
architectural,  as  well  as  learning,  were  the  handmaids 
of  his  work.  Trained  by  Celtic  missionaries,  he  saw  as 
it  were  from  within  the  weakness  of  their  position  :  it 
was  he  who  more  than  any  other  man  brought  England 
the  fit  union  in  custom  with  the  Church  oversea  which 
was  essential  to  the  completeness  of  her  work.     His 


S.  Cuthbert,  and  all  the  saints  that  are  in  the  island.  And 
Ethehvald,  bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  he  put  it  together  and  enriched 
it  as  he  well  could.  And  Billfrith,  the  ancho  ite,  he  wrought  in 
smith's  vork  the  ornaments  that  are  on  the  outside,  and  he  it 
ornamented  with  gold  and  with  gems  and  with  silver  unalloyed 
overlaid.' " 

^  Bright,  Early  English  CJiiirch  Hisiory,"^.  197,  from  Eddi,   Vita 
Wtlf.,  c.  3,  4. 

■13—2 


196  The  English  Saints 

was  a  great  life,  a  fascinating  character.  He  left  behind 
him  a  brilliant  memory  :  but  his  influence,  save  in  the 
one  great  success  of  his  career  was  not  permanent. 
Eddi^  his  friend  and  pupil  was  his  enthusiastic  bio- 
gra[)hiT  and  he  was  one  of  the  very  first  Englishmen 
to  write  the  life  of  an  English  saint.  With  the  life  of 
S.  Cuthbert  before  him,  he  set  himself  to  tell  the  story 
of  long  struggles  for  a  great  object,  of  a  life  very  unlike 
that  of  the  simple  Northumbrian  who  was  always  more 
of  a  hermit  than  a  statesman  ;  and  he  told  it  with 
unwa\ering  fidelity  to  his  hero.  Wilfrith  as  a  saint  is 
rich  in  gifts,  in  buildings  such  as  at  York,  and  the 
noble  basilica  at  Ripon  and  the  great  church  at 
Hexham  of  which  there  are  still  remains  to-day  :  he  is 
rich  also  in  good  works  of  healing,  which  as  Eddi  tells 
them  have  hardly  a  touch  of  the  miraculous  that  later 
biographers  added.  But  most  of  all  he  is  great  as  a 
missionary,  as  the  pioneer  of  the  great  Northumbrian 
missionaries  of  the  next  generation.  "  The  true  nobility 
of  his  character  shone  out  when  he  devoted  his  master 
mind  to  the  poorest  and  the  most  neglected  of  the 
human  family.""-  With  the  spiritual  side  of  this  mis- 
sionary spirit  was  combined  the  restless  and  inquisitive 
energy  of  the  explorer.     In  Friesland  he  worked  among 

1  Life  of  S.  Wilfrith  in  Historians  of  York  (Raine),  vol.  i. 

^  Dr.  Bright  writes  most  fully  of  Wilfrith  :  Mr.  Raine  in  the 
Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography  also  :  and  there  is  much  of 
interest  in  the  Bishop  of  Bristol's  Theodore  and  Wilfrith  :  Mr. 
Plummer,  Bede^  ii.  315  sqq.  has  the  most  valuable  series  of  notes 
on  all  that  is  connected  with  him.  In  Nova  Legenda^  ii.  425  sqq.^  is 
a  comparatively  unimportant  life  compiled  from  Eadmer  and  Bede. 
The  Offices  of  S.  Wilfrid  (Ripon  1893)  contain  lections  which 
may  possibly  be  from  the  lost  life  ])y  Peter  of  Blois.  Their  style  is 
suggestive. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  197 

the  wildest  of  the  old  Teutonic  kin  :'  after  him,  with  idl 
his  success,  preached  those  who  seemed  to  make  no 
impression  at  all  :-  it  is  a  tale  which  is  common  to 
us  among  modern  missions.  But  the  zeal,  religious 
and  adventurous,  was  unabated,  Bede  tells  of  the 
interest  with  which  the  common  origin  of  the  Teutonic 
tribes  was  traced,  and  appealed  to,  as  an  argument  for 
missionary  enterprise.  The  Frisians,  the  Riigeners, 
the  Huns,  perhaps  even  the  Avars,  as  well  as  the  old 
Saxons,  were  among  those  whom  the  Brythons,  as  he 
says,  would  corruptly  call  "  Garmans."^  Among  them 
the  noble  army  of  English  missionaries  laboured,  among 
people  "  blinded  by  the  darkness  of  unfaith,"  among 
pagans  who  observed  hideous  rites  making  of  them 
"  the  new  people  of  God."^  In  many  strange  wild 
places  was  the  banner  of  the  Lord  set  up  by  His 
soldiers,  the  men  to  one  of  whose  leaders  the  Irish 
Annals  give  the  happy  name  of  "  the  rider  of  Christ.''^ 
With  Wilfrith  and  his  successors  Christianity  seized 
and  appropriated  the  adventurous  Teutonic  spirit. 
There,  century  by  century,  we  can  trace  the  distinct 
influence  upon  the  character  of  the  nation  of  the  con- 
secration, it  may  be  called,  of  their  instinct.  The  great 
missionaries  were  the  ancestors  of  the  great  discoverers. 
With  Wilfrith  we  pass  from  the  great  age  of 
Northumbrian  bishops.     They  had  trained,  besides  the 

1  The  very  fierceness  of  the  reply  of  Adalgis  to  the  offer  of 
Ebroin  for  Wilfrith's  head  shows  this.     Eddi,  Vita  Wilf.,  27. 

2  Cf.  Bede,  v.  9. 

^  Bede,  v.  9  :  in  Oxford  one  cannot  but  be  reminded  of  the  story 
of  an  eminent  Rector  of  Lincoln  College,  who  wished  the  Garman 
theology  in  the  Garman  ocean.  *  It  is  Bede's  phrase,  v.  19. 

•''  Annals  of  Tighernach,  quoted  by  Plummer,  Bede^  ii.  286. 


ig8  The' English  Saints 

leaders  of  missions  oversea,  many  noble  teachers  of  the 
English,  such  as  those  who  brought  the  Midhmds  to 
Christ,  and  notably  the  great  Chad,  \\ho  first  went 
with  the  true  adventurous  spirit  to  what  till  he  came 
were  "  haunts  of  robbery  and  lairs  of  wild  beasts  rather 
than  dwellings  of  men,"  and  at  last  died  of  the  plague 
caught  in  his  "  glorious  "'  labours. 

Such  were  the  high  issues  in  active  life  to  which  the 
monastic  training  tuned  the  hearts  of  men.  But  almost 
as  conspicuously,  and  more  constantly,  monasticism 
inculcated  another,  yet  not  antagonistic,  ideal. 

"  The  wilderness  and  the  solitary  place  shall  be  glad 
for  them  and  the  desert  shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as 
the  rose."  How  often  all  over  Europe  have  those 
beautiful  and  familiar  words  been  quoted  in  grateful 
application  to  the  monastic  orders  :  and  as  the  clouds 
of  misrepresentation  roll  away  we  may  repeat  them 
nowhere  so  fitly  as  here  in  England,  nowhere  with 
more  gratitude  and  reverence.  The  wilderness  and 
the  wastes  become  fruitful  fields — and  the  roses  that 
blossom  are  the  flowers  of  a  pure  and  lofty  character 
and  all  the  glory  of  a  blameless  life. 

"  A  school  of  service  to  our  Lord,  in  which  we  hope 
that  we  shall  not  be  found  to  have  ordained  anything 
harsh,  anything  grievous  :"^  so  wrote  S.  Benedict  of 
his  own  great  work.  Still  in  her  kalendar  the  English 
Church  asks  us  to  remember  perhaps  the  brightest 
example  of  an  English  life  trained  in  that  school,  the 
Venerable  Bede.- 

'  See  Hodgkin,  //a/_y  and  her  Invaders,  iv.  497. 
-  On    tlie  title  Venerable  sec  Bencd.  xiv.,  Dc  Can.  SS.,  lib.  i., 
cap.  37,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  160-162. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  igg 

It  was  a  high  ideal :  yet  ver}-  simple  and  not  outside 
the  attainment  of  any  man,  by  the  grace  of  God. 

"  A  monk  ought  not  to  wish  to  be  called  holy  before 
he  is  so  ;  but  first  to  become  what  may  truly  be  so 
called.  Dail}-  to  fulfil  in  his  actions  the  command- 
ments of  God.  To  love  chastit\' ;  to  hate  no  one  ;  to 
have  no  jealousy,  no  envy ;  to  dislike  discord  and  to 
flee  pride.  To  reverence  his  elders,  to  love  his  juniors, 
and  in  the  love  of  Christ  to  pray  for  his  enemies.  To 
be  at  peace  before  the  setting  of  the  sun  with  those 
with  whom  he  may  have  disagreed.  And  never  to 
despair  of  God's  mere}-."  So  wrote  S.  Benedict  in  the 
sixth  century  :  so  lived  Beda  a  century  and  a  half  later. 

Nowhere  is  the  ideal  of  the  monastic  life  more  happil}- 
enshrined  than  in  the  beautiful  life  of  the  Venerable 
Bede.  Beautiful  we  may  well  call  it,  scanty  though 
our  knowledge  of  its  details  be.^  The  late  legends'-' 
which  profess  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  title 
Venerable"^  quaintly  express  the  reverence  with  which 
his  memory  was  regarded.  He  became  blind,  they  say, 
before  he  died,  and  yet  would  go  about  preaching  the 
^\ord.  One  day  the  boy  who  led  him  when  they  were 
in  a  valley  full  of  stones  told  him  that  a  large  crowd  sat 

^  Tlie  life  of  Bede  in  Xova  Lcgenda^  \.  107- 112,  is  made  up  from 
the  Morbus  et  Obitns  by  Cuthbert  of  Durham,  WiUiam  of  Mahiies- 
bury,  Simeon  of  Durham,  and  the  Golden  Legend  :  Bede  himself 
wrote  a  "little  autobiography,"  H.  £".,  v.  24.  The  modern  accounts 
of  value  are  that  by  Bishop  Stubbs  in  the  Diciw/uiry  of  Christian 
Biography,  the  life  by  Bishop  Browne  (1879)  and  the  masterly 
preface  by  Mr.  Plummer  to  his  edition  of  the  historical  works 
1896. 

^  They  are  given  by  Horstman,  Nova  Legeiida^  i.  iii,  from  the 
Legenda  Aurea,  p.  833. 

^  Cf.  Bishop  Browne,  Bcdc,  Appendix  B. 


200  The  English  Saints 

eagerly  and  silentl\-  waiting  for  his  sermon.  He  preached 
fervent!}-  and  when  he  ended  A\ith  the  "  per  sa^cula 
saeculornni  "  the  stones  cried  out  aloud  "  amen,  venera- 
bilis  pater":  or,  as  others  said,  the  angels  exclaimed, 
"  well  hast  thou  said,  O  venerable  father."  Or  again, 
as  one  of  his  disciples  was  writing  a  verse  epitaph  for 
his  tomb  and  he  thought  how  to  make  his  second  line 
run  fitly  and  as  he  slept  still  sought  the  needful  word, 
in  the  morning  he  saw  that  an  angel  had  written 
venerable  in  the  vacant  space. 

Hac  sunt  in  fossa 
BcdiT.^  vcnerabilis  ossa. 

So  it  runs  on  the  great  stone  in  the  Durham  Galilee 
to-day.  Later  ages  by  an  historic  insight  not  far 
removed  from  inspiration  have  never  abandoned  the 
title.  The  monastic  ideal  was  truly  venerable  ;  and  no 
man  ever  set  it  forth  more  full}-  than  the  Northumbrian 
Bede. 

It  is  hrst  as  a  man  of  learning  that  he  is  mcnioral)le. 
All  his  life,  from  a  young  child  he  was  a  monk  of 
Jarrow.'  "  I  spent  all  my  years  in  that  monastery, 
ever  intent  upon  the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  Between 
the  observance  of  the  regular  discipline  and  the  daily 
care  of  chanting  in  the  church,  it  was  ever  sweet  to  me 
to  learn,  to  teach,  or  to  write.""-  At  the  basis  of  his 
learning  there  was  the  love  of  God.  It  was  supported  by 
the  monastic  life,  with  its  fixed  hours,  fixed  rules  of 
work  and  prayer.     Fitl}'  does  William  of  Malmesbury^ 

'  I3ut  sec  Pluiiimer,  J)C(/i',  i.,  p.  w  i.  'I'hrout^liout  constant  refer- 
ence should  be  made  to  Mr.  Pluninier's  investij,'^ation,  exhaustive 
and  sym]3athetic. 

'•^  Bede,  //.  £.,  v.  24.  ^  Ges^a  Rcguni^  ed.  Stubbs,  i.  63-64. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  201 

quote  of  him  those  words  of  the  old  Wisdom  Hterature, 
"  Wisdom  will  not  enter  into  a  soul  that  deviseth  evil 
nor  dwell  in  a  body  that  is  held  in  pledge  by  sin,"^  and 
say  that  he  was  a  man  of  sane  and  unfretful  faith.- 
Humble  like  a  true  scholar,^  he  is  no  less  eminently 
wise.  He  might  have  written  in  his  books,  as  did  a 
doctor  of  our  own  an  hundred  years  since,*  the  Pauline 
motto  ^LkoTi^ela-dai  rjavxd^^iv.  Yet  he  was  a  pioneer 
in  literature ;  and  as  our  dear  teacher  of  a  few  years 
ago,  who  seemed  to  us  in  his  holiness  and  his  siinple 
charm  so  greatly  to  resemble  him,  wrote,  "he  was  one 
of  the  most  original  personages  in  history."^  He  loved 
old  national  songs — he  was  a  verse  writer  indeed,  and  a 
poor  one,  himself*^ — he  delighted  in  tales  of  courage  or  of 
spiritual  adventure,  but  most  of  all  he  sought  simply  to 
do,^  and  to  tell,  the  truth.  This  it  is  that  made  him 
the  great  historian  that  he  was.  He  "  centred  in  him- 
self nearly  all  the  knowledge  of  the  day":^  there  seems 
to  be  no  subject  that  men  had  within  their  power  to 
learn  that  he  did  not  seek  to  know  :  and  in  his  great 
work  he  wrote  nothing  that  he  had  not  known  himself 
or  learnt  from  those  whom  he  could  trust.'-^ 

1  Wisdom  i.  4. 

-  "Fidei  sanas  et  incudosEe,"  op.  cit.^  i.  63. 

2  Plummer,  Bede^  i.  Ixvi. 

■1  George  Hutton,  D.D.  (1764- 18 17),  Fellow  of  Magdalen  College. 

^  W.  Bright,  Early  English  Church  History,  p.  336. 

"  Cuthbert,  de  obitu  B.  (Plummer,  i.  clxi.),  who  quotes  five  Eng- 
lish lines  of  his. 

~'  S.  John  iii.  21  ;  t/.  i  S.  John  i.  6. 

s  Bishop  Stubbs,  in  Diet.  Clirn.  Biography,  i.  301. 

'-*  "  Nearly  every  kingdom  of  England  furnished  him  with  materials 
for  his  History  ;  it  was  a  London  priest  who  searched  the  records 
at  Rome  for  the  monk  of  J  arrow  :  abbot  Albanus  transmitted  to 


202  The  English  Saints 

The  greatest  of  modern  historians  singles  out  as  the 
virtues  which  arc  most  conspicuous  in  his  work  the 
graces  of  truthfuhicss  and  gentleness.  It  is  (juite  clear 
that  these  gifts  were  as  prominent  in  his  life. 

Absolute  sincerity.  That  means  necessarily  humilit\- 
and  simplicity.  A  life  of  fixed  rule,  lived  in  perfect 
charity  vvifli  all  men,  in  dutiful  obedience,  in  strict  self- 
restraint,  with  the  mind  fixed  on  God,  is  the  fit  school 
for  those  virtues.  Life  and  work  are  seen  to  hang 
together  : — it  is  impossible  as  we  say  it  of  Bede  to 
avoid  a  thought  of  contrast.  In  our  day  the  tendency 
is,  in  vigorous  energy  for  the  cause,  as  it  seems,  of  God 
and  man,  to  forget  the  need  for  the  cultivation  of 
personal  holiness.  Yet  it  was  one  of  our  Lord's  most 
often  repeated  warnings,  that  the  greatest  activit}-,  the 
most  energetic  outward  work  of  a  religious  kind,  the 
most  active  philanthropy,  are  compatible  with  self- 
seeking  and  an  evil  heart.  "  Many  will  say  to  Me  in 
that  day,  Lord,  Lord,  did  we  not  prophesy  in  Thy 
Name  and  by  Thy  Name  cast  out  devils  and  by  Thy 
Name  do  many  mighty  works  ?  And  then  will  I 
profess  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you  :  depart  from 
Me,  ye  that  work  iniquity."^  Good  and  enduring  work 
can  only  be  built  on  the  rock  of  personal  holiness. 
That  was  the  principle  which  the  monastic  ideal  held 
up  in  the  face  of  the  cruelties  and  confusion  of  the 
medieval  world.      It  was  a  thought  prominent  in  the 

him  the  details  of  the  history  of  the  Kentish  church  ;  bishop 
Daniel,  the  patron  of  Boniface,  supplied  the  West  Saxon  ;  the 
monks  of  Lastingham,  the  depositories  of  the  traditions  of  Cedd 
and  Chad,  reported  how  Mercia  was  converted  ;  Esi  wrote  from 
East  Anglia,  and  Cynibert  from  Lindsay."  Stubbs,  as  above. 
1  S.  Matt.  vii.  22,  23. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  203 

life  of  Bede.  He  is  never  weary  of  recording  in  his 
History  how  the  goodness  of  the  hves  of  those  whom 
he  commemorates  gave  force  to  their  teaching.  It  is 
thus  in  his  account  of  S.  Augustine  and  his  mission- 
aries. "  Several  believed  and  were  baptized,  admiring 
the  simplicity  of  their  innocent  life  and  the  sweetness 
of  their  heavenly  doctrine."^  So  with  S.  Aidan, — "  it 
was  the  highest  commendation  of  his  doctrine  with  all 
men  that  he  taught  no  otherwise  than  the  life  which  he 
and  his  followers  lived  :"-  with  Fursey — "  by  the  ex- 
ample of  his  virtue  and  the  power  of  his  preaching  he 
converted  the  unbelievers  to  Christ,  and  confirmed  in 
the  faith  and  love  of  Christ  those  who  had  already 
believed  :'"^  with  S.  Cuthbert  "  he  first  showed  in  his 
own  behaviour  \\hat  he  taught  was  to  be  performed  by 
others  "* :  with  Ecgberct  of  lona  "  being  most  devout  in 
practising  those  things  which  he  taught,  he  was  willingly 
heard  by  all."  It  was  part  of  Bede's  absolute  con- 
scientiousness that  he  could  not  bear  the  thought  of 
men  passing,  in  their  work,  outside  the  support  of  their 
own  devotional  experience.  Thus  to  him — and  it  is 
certainly  the  ideal  of  the  English  Church — no  work 
could  be  blessed  when  the  first  obligation  was  neg- 
lected. Common  prayer  was  the  strength  of  individual 
labour  for  the  good  of  men.  The  one  could  not  take 
the  place  of  the  other.  There  is  a  lesson  in  the  tale 
which  is  told  of  him  which  we  are  all  too  read}-  to  forget 
— and  which  certainl}-  those  who  have  tried  to  learn 
know  to  be  true,  and  thank  God  for.  His  brother 
monks, — it  is  Alcuin  his  worthy  disciple  who  tells  the 

1  Hist.  EllL,  i.  26.  -  Ibid,  iii.  5. 

^  Ibid.,  iii.  19.  •*  Ibid.,  iv.  28. 


204  The  English  Saints 

tale — knowing  his  weakness,  and  the  many  claims  of 
work  that  pressed  upon  his  time,  urged  him  not 
al\va\-s  to  attend  the  singing  of  the  canonical  hours 
in  church.  "I  know,''  he  answered,  "that  the  angels 
are  with  us  at  those  hours ;  what  if  they  find  not 
me  there  among  the  brethren  ?  Will  they  not  say, 
Where  is  Bede  ?  Why  does  he  not  come  with  the 
brethren  to  the  prescribed  prayers?'"^ 

It  is  easy  to  call  such  conscientious  devotion  to  the 
strict  meaning  of  an  obligation  formal  and  unnecessary. 
It  is  naturally  irksome  in  an  age  like  our  own  where  the 
spirit  of  discipline  and  training  and  rule  in  religious 
matters  is  conspicuously  lacking.  But  it  is  impossible 
to  deny  that  such  obedience  is  the  natural  soil  on  which 
a  liabit  of  absolute  sincerity  and  truthfulness  grows  and 
thri\es.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  to  Bede's  strict 
rule  of  life  we  owe  the  simplicit}'  and  veracity — the 
restraint,  the  fidelity  to  his  authorities,  the  scrupulous 
accuracy  of  his  personal  record — which  are  the  most 
striking  features  of  his  historical  work. 

It  might  be  well  to  speak  of  how  the  ideal  expressed 
in  his  life  represented  just  the  wants  of  the  nation  in 
his  time,  to  say  something  of  the  value  of  his  life, 
cloistered  though  it  was,  and  his  example.  The  facts 
are  not  far  to  seek  ;  and  they  need  not  here  be  collected. 
But  no  one  who  reads  about  him  can  fail  to  be  struck 
by  the  fact  that,  simply  by  the  weight  of  his  personal 
character  and  his  learning  and  in  spite  of  every  obstacle 
from  time  and  space  and  barbarism,  a  poor  monk  living 
in  the  distant  north  exercised  even  during  his  life  a 
profound  influence  over  all  the  important  men  of  his 
'  Alcuin,  Epp.  i6,  ed.  Aligne,  Patr.  Lat. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  205 

day.  It  is  indeed  an  old  experience :  to  know  any 
subject  thoroughl}-,  or  rather  to  grasp  intimately  in 
mind  and  life,  the  principles  which  underlie  any  region 
of  human  interest  and  knowledge,  does  give,  and  that 
necessaril}-,  an  unique  influence.  Bede  was  almost  an 
ideal  historian  :  he  had  learnt  the  secret  of  human  life  at 
the  feet  of  Christ.  And  this  it  was  which  made  kings 
and  bishops  apply  to  him  for  advice — and  which  made 
his  advice  when  given  of  practical  and  enduring  value. 
The  contemplative  and  the  active  life  are  not  so  widely 
severed  as  men  think.  The  thorough  student,  torn  as 
it  were  from  his  books,  is  often  the  man  best  fitted  to 
grapple  with  the  piercing  problems  of  actual  life.^ 
Bede's  famous  letter  to  Ecgberht  Archbishop  of  York 
is  a  most  remarkable  illustration  of  this  fact.  From 
his  knowledge  of  men,  a  knowledge  gained  very  largely 
from  study  rather  than  from  life,  he  was  able  to  advise, 
encourage,  warn,  with  an  authority  and  an  insight 
which  only  love  and  truth  can  really  bestow. 

We  have  a  clue  to  the  source  of  this  influence  and 
to  the  secret  of  the  strength  of  the  monastic  ideal  in  the 
view  which  Bede  takes,  in  his  history,  of  the  meaning 
and  the  unity  of  human  life.  As  an  historian,  he  sees 
life  as  one,  and  as  a  Christian  he  sees  no  sharp  division 
in  the  grave.  He  is  never  content  to  say  of  a  saint  that 
"  he  died."  S.  Chad  "joyfully  beheld  the  day  of  his 
death — or  rather  the  day  of  the  Lord,  which  till  it  came 
he  had  ever  anxiousl}-  awaited.""-  Of  the  day  of 
S.  Cuthbert's  death  he  says  it  was  "  rather  the  day  of 

1  There  could  be  no  better  example  than  that  modern  "  Leader 
in  the  Northern  Church,"  Bishop  Lightfoot,  or  his  successor. 
^  Hist.  Eccl.,  iv.  3. 


2o6  TiiK  English  Saints 

his  entrance  into  that  hfe  wliich  alone  is  to  be  called 
life."  '  And  S.  Gregory  "  departed  to  the  true  life 
which  is  in  heaven.'"-  How  beautiful  a  commentary 
on  this  thought  is  that  touching  record  of  Bede's  own 
end,  with  the  finish  of  his  commentary  on  the  (lospel 
of  the  Beloved  Disciple.  His  life  ended  like  his  history 
with  devotion  and  peace.  "  And  now  I  beseech  Thee, 
good  Jesus,  that  to  whom  Thou  hast  granted  sweetly  to 
drink  of  the  words  of  Thy  wisdom,  Thou  wilt  also  vouch- 
safe that  he  may  in  due  time  come  to  Thee,  the  Fountain 
of  all  Wisdom,  and  always  stand  ever  before  Thy  Face.'"^ 
So  he  had  ended  his  record  of  the  Church  history  of  the 
English  race :  when  he  came  to  die  "  he  passed  the  day 
in  gladness  till  the  evening  "  and  then  when  the  last  sen- 
tence of  the  Gospel  was  written  and  the  boy  had  said  "  it 
is  finished"  he  answered  "  Thou  hast  spoken  truth  :  it  is 
finished.  Take  ni}-  head  in  thy  hands,  for  much  it  delights 
me  to  sit  over  against  my  hoh'  place,  where  I  was  wont  to 
pray.  So  that  I  too  sitting  may  call  upon  my  Father."^ 
With  his  last  breath  he  gave  glory  to  Father  Son  and 
Holy  Ghost  and  so  passed  peacefully  to  God.  In  his  last 
days  the  beautiful  Ascension  antiphon  had  been  on  his 
lips,*"  a  pra}'er  for  the  comfort  of  those  whom  he  left 
behind. 

'  HisL  EccL,  iv.  28. 

2  Ibid.,  ii.  I. 

^  Plummer's  edition,  i.  360. 

"*  De  obitu  Bedcc,  Plummer,  i.  clxiv. 

■'  "  O  rex  glorias,  Uomine  virtutum,  Qui  triumphator  hodie  super 
omnes  caslos  ascendisti,  ne  derelinquas  nos  orphanos,  seu  mitte 
promissum  Patris,  Spirituni  W-ritatis."  No  Magdalen  man  can 
forget  liow  bcautifulh'  that  antiplion  still  sounds  in  his  college 
chapel. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  207 

A  scholar,  musician,  artist,^  preacher,"-  a  wise  coun- 
sellor, a  faithful  loving  heart,  Bede  showed  what  the 
monastic  life  and  discipline  could  produce.  Simplicity 
and  devotion  were  his,  the  truest  sources  of  strength. 

By  the  side  of  Bede  we  may  place  another  name, 
that  of  a  scholar  and  monk  of  Southern  England,  who 
came  under  different  influences  and  led  a  more  public 
life,  but  whose  aims  and  ideals  were  the  same — Aldhelm, 
abbat  of  Malmesbury  and  Bishop  of  Sherborne.'' 

Malmesbury,  where  the  splendid  abbey  church  still 
in  part  remains,  was  the  centre  of  monastic  culture  for 
the  borderlands  between  the  Saxons  and  the  Welsh. 
It  was  near  there  that  Augustine  met  the  British 
bishops ;  it  was  there  that  Celtic  influences  from 
Ireland,  rich  in  learning  and  art,  were  most  prominent. 
There  Aldhelm  ruled  as  abbat  from  675  to  705,  the 
contemporary  of  the  great  bishops  and  great  monks 
of  the  North,  whose  memory  Bede  has  made  immortal. 
His  work  as  scholar,  writer  of  verses,  preacher,  abbat, 
was  much  like  that  of  other  monks.  And  his  earnest 
preaching  of  purity  was  the  natural  outcome  of  Christian 

1  Bede  clearly  appreciated  the  great  artistic  work  of  Benedict 
Biscop.  Cf.  inter  alia  Bishop  Browne's  interesting  paper  on 
Monkwearmouth. 

"  A  sermon  of  his  is  translated  by  Bishop  Browne  in  his  Bede^ 
chapter  ix. 

2  On  S.  Aldhelm  Bede  is  brief:  William  of  Malmesbury,  Gesia 
Pofiiificutn,  pp.  330  sqq.,  is  most  full,  and  much  more  valuable  than 
the  Life  by  Faricius,  Acta  SS.,  May  (25),  vi.  84  :  the  last  named  is 
epitomized  in  Nova  Legc7ida^  i.  38  sqq.  :  see  also  Leo  Bonhoff,  A/d- 
helm  von  Malmesbury  (1894),  a  careful  investigation.  I  have  also 
had  the  advantage  of  reading  in  proof  the  Bishop  of  Bristol's  most 
interesting  and  valuable  5.  Aldhebn  (lectures  delivered  in  his 
cathedral  church). 


2oS  The  Engi,isii  Saints 

training  under  Celtic  tt-achcrs.  But  one  talc  of  him, 
at  least,  is  especially  characteristic.  He  would  sit  on 
the  bridge,  as  the  people  came  out  from  mass  to  loiter 
gossiping  on  their  way  home,  and  sing  them  sacred 
lays,  teaching  them  their  faith,  as  it  were,  in  chance 
verses,  and  enlisting  in  God's  service  the  national  love 
of  music  and  song.  It  was  Alfred,  himself  a  singer, 
who  preserved  this  tale. 

Aldhelm  visited  Rome,  and  played  there  an  impor- 
tant part,  before  he  was  called  to  be  bishop  of  the  new- 
formed  see  of  Sherborne.  He  feared  to  take  upon  him 
the  bishop's  duties,  to  command  rebels  with  authority, 
to  comfort  the  humble  with  gentleness.'  But  he  yielded 
at  last,  and  the  bishops  took  him  for  colleague,  the 
clerks  for  father,  the  laity  for  guardian.  To  Berhtwald, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  he  was  a  wise  adviser  and  a 
teacher  of  sound  principles.-^ 

As  bishop  he  laboured  with  unwearied  zeal,  as  truly 
a  "  servus  servorum  Dei  ";'^  active  was  he  in  visiting 
his  whole  diocese,  and  indefatigable  in  preaching,  strict 
in  fasting  as  in  his  youth.  He  died,  when  engaged  on 
one  of  his  episcopal  journeys,  in  the  wooden  church  of 
Doulting  in  Somerset :  and  when  men  had  prayed  for 
his  soul,  and  miracles  of  healing  had  been  wrought,  he 
was  carried  with  deep  reverence  by  easy  stages  to 
Malmesbury  :'*  and  at  each  place  a  stone  cross  was  set 
up  in  memor)-  of  the  holy  dead. 

'  Such  appears  to  be  William  of  Malmesbury's  view  of  the  duties 
of  the  episcopal  ofificc.     Gesta  Potttijicum  (Rolls  Series),  p.  375. 

-  J  did.,  p.  376.  ^  Idui.,  p.  381. 

•*  The  Bishop  of  Bristol  in  his  S.  Aldhelm  traces  the  journey  with 
that  delightful  combination  of  liistorical,  antiquarian,  and  artistic 
learning  in  which  he  is  unique. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  209 

Aldhelm  was  remembered,  not  onl}'  for  the  miracles 
which  men,  in  the  years  that  followed,  naturally  attri- 
buted to  him,  so  that  he  became  famous  even  among 
the  conquering  Normans, ^  but  as  a  writer  of  eloquence 
and  also,  it  must  be  admitted,  of  considerable  violence. 
His  history  is  of  interest  in  our  subject  as  showing,  in 
instances  which  it  is  unnecessary  here  to  repeat,  the 
continued  association  between  England  and  Ireland, 
evidenced  at  first  by  the  creation  of  the  Malmesbury 
house,  as  well  as  by  the  resort  of  Irish  students  to  the 
school  of  Archbishop  Theodore  at  Canterbury,-  and  also 
as  an  example  of  the  strong  influence  of  the  monastic 
life  and  the  monastic  ideal  upon  the  society  of  the 
English  folk.  It  was  from  the  tradition,  and  the 
following,  of  men  such  as  Aldhelm  that  kings  and 
statesmen  learnt,  like  Alfred,  to  give  half  their  income 
and  half  their  time  to  God. 

As  the  days  went  on,  as  the  Norman  came  with  his 
clear  sense  of  rule,  much  that  has  been  typical  of 
English  monasticism,  and  much  too  that  even  in  the 
early  days  saints  had  reprobated,  that  Bede  himself  had 
condemned,  passed  away.  But  the  characteristic  fruits 
of  monasticism  continued  to  be  shown  in  the  training 
of  statesmen  and  missionaries  and  of  active  as  well  as 
contemplative  servants  of  God.  As  the  twelfth  century, 
prolific  in  great  men,  left  its  mark  deep  on  the  history 
of  the  land,  in  union  of  peoples,  in  constitution  and  laws, 
much  that  was  influential  on  men's  lives,  and  that  showed 
the  influence  of  earlier  days,  came  forward  into  view. 

1  Gesta  PontificuDi,  p.  423. 

■■^  On  their  treatment  of  these  lectures,  and  its  results,  see  the 
Bishop  of  Bristol's  comment  in  his  S.  Aldhelm. 

14 


210  The  English  Saints 

It  would  be  impossible  in  any  record  of  English 
saints  to  pass  by  the  founder  of  the  one  English 
monastic  order,  a  man  characteristically  Enghsh  in  his 
thought,  and  whose  work  never  had  influence  outside 
his  own  land. 

There  is  much  of  very  special  interest  in  his  story. 
Gilbert  of  Sempringham,^  the  son  of  a  Lincolnshire 
knight,  was  a  man  of  genius  :  for  he  designed  an  order 
which  should  combine  the  training  of  men  and  women 
for  the  religious  life,  a  re^•ival  of  what  had  not  been 
seen  in  England  for  centuries.  He  was  a  man,  like  all 
the  great  founders  of  medieval  monasticism,  of  the 
deepest  sincerity  and  of  a  remarkable  simplicity. 
Trained  under  Robert  Bloet,  and  afterwards  by  the 
great  bishop  and  statesman,  Alexander  of  Lincoln,  he 
had  greatness  thrust  upon  him,  a  greatness  which  a 
shrewd  man  like  Henry  H.  clearly  recognized.  He  did 
not  escape  the  difficulties  of  his  time  or  his  profession, 
least  of  all  the  perils  among  false  brethren  ;  but  his 
faith  and  courage  brought  him  through  them  all,  and 
when  he  died  he  left  a  flourishing  order  behind  him, 
which  did  much  for  the  great  revival  of  religion  in  the 
thirteenth  centur\-.  He  himself  saw  the  building  of 
thirteen  houses  of  his  order,  nine  for  men  and  women 
in  separate  dwellings,  and  four  for  canons  alone,  besides 
many  hospitals  for  the  aged  and  the  infirm.  His  con- 
temporary, William  of  Newburgh,   at   once  the    most 

'  Sec  Nova  Lci^tmld,  i.  470  s(jq.:  Will.  Newburgh  in  (Rulls 
Series)  Chrons.  of  Stephen^  etc.,  i.  54.  The  life  in  J.  11.  Newman's 
Lives  of  tlic  ^Vr;////,s-,  1844,  was  written  b)-  \)-  V>.  Dalgairns.  An 
excellent  life  has  recently  (lyoi)  been  written  by  Miss  Rose 
Graham  :  sec  also  Trans.  R.  Hist.  Soc,  N.S.,  \ol.  xiii. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  211 

impartial  and  the  most  critical  writer  of  the  day,  says, 
''  In  my  judgment,  in  the  rule  of  women  he  holds  the 
palm  among  all  whom  we  have  known."  Haverholme 
Prior}'  was  the  first  house  built.  The  rule  was  adapted, 
partly  from  the  Cistercian,  partly  from  the  lighter  rule 
of  the  Augustinian  canons  ;  but  there  were  many  special 
orders  as  to  the  management  of  the  nuns,  their  journeys, 
their  worship,  their  confessions,  their  sicknesses  and 
death.  Special  troubles  from  which  the  founder 
suffered  were  the  incursions  of  gossiping  women,  such  as 
Agnes  de  Vescy,  who  would  beset  the  house  of  Walton 
with  her  women  and  dogs,  and  stay  for  many  days — a 
lady  so  great  that  only  the  king  could  relieve  the  nuns 
of  so  unwelcome  or  lengthy  a  visitor.  Gilbert  was  a 
simple  Lincolnshire  gentleman,  strong  and  patient, 
strict  and  simple,  no  babbler,  labouring  more  than  all 
his  brethren.  He  lived  to  be  over  a  hundred,  and  died 
with  the  thought  of  charity,  always  nearest  to  his  heart, 
still  on  his  lips.  "•  He  hath  dispersed  abroad  and  given 
to  the  poor.  That  is  thy  duty,"  he  said  to  those  who 
stood  by.  It  was  a  meet  lesson  from  the  life  of  the 
characteristically  English  monk  :— education,  the  joint 
training  of  women  and  men  for  the  service  of  God, 
hospital  work  among  sick  and  poor. 

The  influence  which  he  left  behind  him,  and  which 
was  greatly  extended  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries,  passed  on  in  later  days  into  the  general 
current  of  philanthropic  effort.  But  it  was  given  just 
when  it  had  been  needed.  It  showed  that  Englishmen 
could  anticipate,  and  in  some  sort  amplify,  the  work 
that  was  to  win  world-wide  fame  under  S.  Francis  and 
S.  Dominic. 

14—2 


212  Till'    ExGT.isH  Saints 

And  side  b\'  side  \\ith  Gilbert  \\hosc  personality  is 
visible  only  in  his  work,  may  be  set  another  figure  of 
whom  the  most  vivid  record  is  preserved. 

S.  Hugh  of  Avalon/  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  is  in  many 
respects  the  most  attractive  of  the  medieval  Saints  of 
England.  He  was  not  an  Englishman,  but  no  one 
among  the  many  foreigners  who  have  made  England 
their  home  became  more  English  in  thought  and  sym- 
pathy. For  the  rights  of  the  Church  of  Lincoln,^  not 
only  those  which  were  claimed  for  the  Church  Universal, 
he  steadfastly  contended,  and  his  contention  was  an 
event  of  significance  in  the  history  of  the  liberties  of 
his  adopted  country.  But  in  politics,  so  far  as  they 
did  not  closely  touch  his  duties  as  monk  or  bishop,  he 
took  no  part.  He  lived,  in  high  place,  and  among  en- 
grossing labours  which  he  never  neglected,  the  detached 
life.  He  was  the  true  son  of  the  wild  Chartreuse, 
remote  from  all  earthly  disquieting,  set  almost  upon  the 
clouds  and  nigh  to  heaven."  Hugh  was  the  monk,  with 
all  the  monk's  simple  gaiety  of  heart  and  all  the  monk's 
intuitive  knowledge  of  character.'* 

^  Fur  S.  Huyli  sec  List  of  MSS.  in  HPivdy ^  Descnptive  Catalogue^ 
ii.  542-550  :  Magna  Vita  S.  Hugonis,  ed.  Dimock,  1864  :  Opera 
Girald.  Cavibr.^  vol.  vii.,  ed.  Freeman  :  Metrical  Life,  ed.  Dimock, 
i860:  Nova  Legenda,  ii.  41-52,  an  abridgment  of  the  Magna  Vita  : 
modern  lives  by  G.  (i.  Perry,  1879,  ^'""i  H.  Thurston,  1898.  The 
last  is  a  painstaking  annotated  translation  from  llie  French 
Carthusian  life,  disfigured  by  a  quaint  animus  against  the  Ecclcsia 
Anglicana  such  as  shows  itself  in  adding  to  the  quoted  reference 
to  the  parish  priest  of  Witham  (1876)  the  words  "  lege  clergyman." 

-  So  his  dispute  with  Richard  1.  as  to  sending  troops  to  serve 
abroad,  Magna  Vita,  pp.  248-250. 

^  Alagna  Vita,  p.  23. 

'  So  .M.  Iluysmans  in  En  Route  very  acutely  writes. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  213 

All  this  we  may  learn  from  an  authentic  and  con- 
temporary biography,  a  book  which  was  written  by  a 
close  intimate  of  the  Saint,  his  friend  and  chaplain, 
who,  living  on  the  edge  of  the  rolling  Cotswold  land^ 
in  his  old  age  set  himself  to  record  the  beautiful  life 
which  had  been  the  inspiration  of  his  youth,  since  the 
days  when  they  had  been  monks  at  the  Chartreuse  to- 
gether.- The  great  life  of  S.  Hugh  is  one  of  the  most 
bright  and  fresh  of  all  the  bright  saint-lives  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Throughout  it,  at  every  point,  there  is 
the  sense  of  contact  with  a  real  servant  of  Christ,  an 
absolutely  sincere  and  simple  disciple,  strong  therefore 
in  the  whole  armour  of  God.  A  simple  ascetic,  who 
had  lived  by  the  strictest  of,  all  monastic  rules,  and 
who  "  carried  the  whole  human  race  in  his  heart,"  as  a 
baron  of  Maurienne  told  Henry  H.,  "  and  loved  all  men 
with  the  love  of  perfect  charity,"'^  he  yet  knew  human 
nature  as  few  others  knew  it,  and  from  the  first  he 
understood  the  character  of  the  fierce  Angevin  kings 
before  whom  all  others  but  Thomas  Becket  trembled. 
When  he  first  saw  Henry  H.  he  told  him  that  he  "  did 
not  despair  of  him  and  that  he  knew  how  his  many 
occupations  interfered  with  the  health  of  his  soul  "* : 
and  at  once  he  was  received  into  the  favour  of  the 
shrewd  sovereign  who  knew  a  man  when  he  sa\\'  him. 
From  him  alone  would  he  endure  reproof:  Hugh  alone 
could  make  that  rhinoceros  serve  him,  as  his  biographer 

1  Adam,  once  abbat  of  Eynsham,  whom  Mr.  Uimock  shows  to 
have  been  the  biographer,  had  in  his  old  age  the  manor  of  Great 
RoUright  for  his  sustenance.     Dimock,  Preface,  p.  xli. 

-  Magna  Vita,  Hb.  i.,  c.  13. 

=  Ibid.,  ii.  I. 

*  Ibid.,  ii.  6. 


214  TuK  English  Saints 

quaintly  says\  When  he  was  in  danger  of  shipwreck, 
so  the  story  was  told,  the  King  cried  "  Ah  !  if  my  Car- 
thusian Hugh  were  now  awake  or  saying  the  divine 
offices  God  would  not  so  long  forget  me."'-  The  tales 
told  of  his  plain  speaking  to  Henr\-  and  to  his  son 
Richard  are  plain  evidence  of  the  influence  of  an 
honest  fearless  man.  "  If  the  rest  of  the  bishops  were 
such  as  he,"  said  Richard,  "  no  king  or  baron  would 
dare  lift  up  his  neck  against  them."'^  To  John,  in 
whom  he  saw  none  of  the  good  impulses  which  struggled 
with  the  passions  of  his  father  and  brother,  he  pointed 
his  warnings  by  reference  to  the  sculptures  of  the  Last 
Judgment  on  the  porch  of  the  abbey  church  at 
Fontevrault.  This  plain  straightforwardness  struck 
the  timid  ecclesiastics  of  his  day  with  surprise.  They 
were  surprised  at  his  sharp  words  to  negligent  servants, 
at  the  slaps  and  buffets  with  which  he  sent  them  to 
their  work,  at  the  skill  with  which  he  tamed  the  tongue 
of  a  garrulous  woman,  who  professed  to  have  a  spirit 
of  divination,  and  made  it  the  excuse  for  incessant 
conversation.* 

Rough  he  undoubtedly  was,  as  when  he  bit  off  two 
pieces  of  the  bone  of  S.  Mary  Magdalen  preserved  at 
Fecamp.     "  Why,"  he  said  to  the  monks,  astonished, 

1  Maojia  Vila,  ii.  7. 

•-'  Ibid.,  ii.  7. 

^  Cf.  Magna  Vi/a,  iii.  10  ;  v.  5,  etc.,  the  famous  stories  of  Hui^h's 
reminding  Henr)'  of  his  humble  ancestry  and  of  liis  sliakin;^' 
Richard's  coat  till  he  gave  him  the  kiss.  It  was  characteristic:  of 
Hugh  that,  unable  to  see  Richard  on  his  deathbed,  he  went  at  great 
risk  through  the  "unlawed'"  country  to  console  his  widow  and 
attend  his  funeral. 

'  Ibid.,  iii.  13  ;  w  8. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  215 

fearful,  raging,  "  when  I  have  but  now  handled  with  my 
unworthy  fingers  and  consumed  the  Body  of  the  Saint 
of  Saints,  may  I  not  thus  take  to  my  charge  the  members 
of  His  Saints  ?"^  So  when  he  lay  on  his  deathbed  and 
Hubert  Walter,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  suggested 
that  he  should  ask  pardon  for  having  so  often  provoked 
his  spiritual  father  and  primate,  he  replied  that  far  from 
regretting  it,  he  was  sorry  that  he  had  not  done  so 
oftener,  and  that  if  God  spared  his  life  he  would  cer- 
tainly provoke  him  more  often  by  speaking  his  mind 
plainly.^  It  was  of  a  piece  with  his  lifelong  protest 
against  insincerity,  his  refusal  to  call  vice  by  any  other 
name,  that  he  ordered  the  removal  of  the  body  of  Fair 
Rosamund  from  the  Nun's  Church  at  Godstow." 

The  life  of  S.  Hugh,  who  came  as  a  foreigner  among 
a  people  whose  dialect  he  could  hardly  understand,  who 
lived  throughout  with  the  strictness  of  a  Carthusian,  so 
far  as  it  was  possible  to  do  so  outside  the  cloister,  who 
never  flattered  or  feared,  made  a  profound  impression  on 
Englishmen.  Twenty  years  after  his  death  he  was 
formally  canonized :  he  had  been  canonized  in  popular 
reverence  from  the  moment  of  his  death.*  The  influence 
which  the  biographies  must  have  done  much  to  cherish 

1  Mr.  Froude  in  his  charming  Short  Studies  told  this  stor)'  as  if 
S.  Hugh  disbeheved  in  rehcs  :  our  only  authority  {Magna  Vita, 
V.  14)  tells  it  among  the  many  instances  of  his  zeal  in  acquiring 
relics. 

-  Magna  Vita,  v.  16. 

^  Leland  represents  him  to  have  said  "  Take  out  the  1)ody  of  this 
liarlot  lest  the  Christian  religion  should  grow  into  contempt."  See 
the  long  note  in  Hearne's  William  of  t\'e'wbiirgh,\o\.  iii.,pp.  T^psqq. 

^  He  died  November  16,  1200:  the  letters  announcing  bull  of 
canonization  were  dated  Feb.  17,  1220.  Roger  of  Wendover,  iv.  64, 
gives  the  date  of  the  bull. 


2i6  The  English  Saints 

was  that  of  a  thorough  healthy,  candid  Hfe.  When  he 
was  building  his  church  at  Witham  he  carried  a  hod 
and  laboured  with  the  rest.  He  was  a  man  of  abrupt 
sincerity  and  unstiiied  humour.  He  showed  that  it  was 
possible  to  live  by  strict  rule  and  yet  to  be  no  outcast 
from  the  thoughts  and  hearts  of  men.  He  never  dis- 
guised his  own  difficulties  and  temptations^  and  he  had 
a  horror  of  any  personal  claim  to  sanctity  or  special 
grace.  But  he  lived  solely  to  do  the  work  of  God. 
Men  learnt  in  the  remembrance  of  him  that  a  monk 
could  live  unspotted  in  the  world,  that  conversion  to 
God  did  not  mean  sanctimoniousness  or  cant,  or  the 
recitation  of  shibboleths,  but  the  sincerity  of  a  humble 
life.  They  did  not  wonder  that  such  a  man  was  shown 
to  be  in  sympathy  with  all  the  works  of  God.  Though 
he  would  seem  on  his  journeys  or  in  the  fine  castles  and 
rich  manors  of  his  see  to  notice  no  outward  thing  and 
to  nourish  his  thoughts  solely  by  the  constant  reading 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  wild  creatures  of  God's 
Hand  knew  him  for  their  friend.  At  the  Chartreuse 
"  the  little  birds  and  wood-mice  which  are  commonly 
called  squirrels,"  says  Giraldus  Cambrensis,-  "  ^^■ere 
domesticated  and  tamed  by  him  to  such  an  extent,  that 
they  would  leave  their  woods,  and  regularly  at  supper 
time  ^^■ould  come  and  share  his  meal  with  him,  not  only 
getting  on  his  table  but  eating  out  of  his  hand  and  his 
plate  and  making  themselves  entirely  his  companions." 
At  Witham  a  goose  was  constantly  in  his  cell ;  at  Stow, 
on  the  manor  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  where  the 
great  church  still  preserves  stories  of  the  older  fabric 

^  E.g.,  Magna  Vi'td,  i.  9  ;  ii.  2. 
*   Works,  vii.  91. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  217 

which  was  burnt  by  the  Danes,  a  large  swan  attached 
itself  to  him  and  was  his  constant  companion.  Stories 
such  as  these,  common  enough  in  the  lives  of  those 
who  are  gentle  and  fearless,  seemed  miraculous  to  his 
contemporaries :  but  the}-  knew  that  the  miracle  was 
only  in  the  love  of  God  which  had  so  filled  the  soul  ot 
His  servant  that  all  creatures  were  his  friends.  When 
he  came  to  his  death  it  was  this  beautiful  simplicity 
and  humility  that  were  most  prominent.  Up  to  the  last 
he  heard  and  joined  in  the  offices.  When  he  was  laid 
to  die,  like  a  monk,  on  cinders,  it  was  the  hour  of  com- 
pHne,  and  the  words  of  the  ninety-first  Psalm  sank  into 
the  hearts  of  those  who  lifted  him  from  his  bed.  "  He 
shall  call  upon  Me  and  I  will  hear  him  :  Yea,  I  am  with 
him  in  trouble  ;  I  will  deliver  him  and  bring  him  to 
honour,"  And  he  passed  away  as  the  monks  round 
him  were  singing  Nunc  Diuitttis.  He  seemed  to  his 
contemporaries  to  be  the  just  man  made  perfect. 
Happily  the  bones  of  S.  Hugh  still  rest  in  their  coffin 
under  the  pavement  of  the  Angel  Choir  of  the  Cathedral 
Church  of  which  he  was  the  inspiration.  His  chaplain 
speaks  bitterly  of  "  the  thievish  propensities  of  evil 
doers "  :^  these  have  not  been  gratified  at  Lincohi. 
The  reverence  which  caused  his  canonization  had  its 
natural  fruits.  Whatever  he  may  himself  have  thought 
of  miracles,  some  were  soon  attributed  to  him."-  But 
the  life  which  his  chaplain  wrote  shows  plainly  enough 
that  even  then  it  was  the  strength  and  sympathy  of  his 
character  that  made  men  think  such  deeds  the  natural 

^  Mag?ia  Vita^  v.  i6. 

-  The  report  of  them  is,  in  part,  in  Had.  MS.  526.  ff.  57-69,  but 
see  Thurston,  op.  cit. 


2i8  The  English  Saints 

outflowing  of  a  heart  to  whose  love  God  must  surely 
give  power.  When  men  wondered  as  he  tended  the 
lepers  he  had  said  "  these  afflicted  ones  are  flowers  of 
paradise.  They  are  pearls  in  the  coronet  of  the  eternal 
King,  waiting  for  the  coming  of  their  Lord,  who  will 
change  their  forlorn  bodies  into  the  likeness  of  His  own 
glory."  He  had  cared  too  for  the  bodies  of  those  whose 
souls  had  passed  away.  He  would  often  turn  aside  to 
bury  the  dead,  counting  it  a  duty  of  honour  which  he 
would  not  willingly  delegate  to  others. 

So  his  memory  endures,  the  memory  of  a  simple  and 
straightforward  character,  sturd}-  and  independent,  con- 
spicuous in  love  for  justice  and  mercy.^  The  monk  in  him 
was  a  man  who  worked  for  others  with  his  whole  heart. 

If  in  Hugh  of  Avalon  there  \\as  contrast  to  the 
cloistered  life  there  was  in  other  famous  figures  of 
his  time  a  greater  contrast  still. 

The  hermit  saints  must  not  be  forgotten  when  we 
try  to  trace  the  moulding  of  English  national  character. 
Their  influence  was  unique.  They  were  not,  like  the 
bishops,  great  lords  whose  holiness  must  shine  through 
the  entanglements  of  spiritual  state  and  worldly  busi- 
ness, or  the  monks  whose  ordered  round  of  services 
might  make  but  faint  echoes  on  the  world  outside,  or 
friars  who  lived  among  the  poor  as  poorer  still  and 
ministered  in  the  crowded  centres  of  population  as 
preachers  of  righteousness  and  love.  The  anchorite 
and  the  hermit"    lived  a  solitary  life,   with   no   active 

^  I  may  be  allowed  to  refer  to  Justice  attd  Mercy,  by  H.  C. 
Beeching,  Canon  of  Westminster,  preached  in  Westminster  Abbey, 
Sunday  afternoon,  November  i6,  1902. 

-  ''  Though  these  terms  are  often  used  synonymously,  a  distinction 
should  be  made  between  them.     The  anchoret  or  recluse,  male  or 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  219 

duties  towards  others,  but  visible,  even  if  it  were  only 
through  a  thin  lancet  opening,  to  all  who  would  come 
and  look  upon  him,  and  Avilling  to  converse  (though  it 
might  be,  like  S.  Godric,  only  by  signs)  with  those  who 
came.  Obvious  in  the  rigour  of  his  asceticism,  his 
contempt  of  the  world  and  of  comfort,  his  mastery 
over  all  the  sins  of  the  flesh  to  which  men  were  most 
prone,  he  might  be  seen  standing  in  the  freezing  lake 
at  midnight ;  his  food  was  known  for  what  it  was,  of 
the  scantiest ;  his  raiment  was  visible  in  all  its  imper- 
fection ;  men  could  measure  the  scant  proportions  of 
his  cell.  As  for  those  who  were  behind  high  walls, 
who  could  tell  that  their  life  was  so  holy  as  a  monk's 
should  be  ?  When  friars  went  in  and  out  among  the 
vile,  who  could  tell  if  they  touched  pitch  and  were  not 
defiled  ?  But  about  the  hermit  there  could  be  no 
doubt.  Men  could  see  and  hear  and  judge  him  for 
themselves.  It  was  thus  that  those  who  gave  them- 
selves, in  this  way  so  strange  to  the  gregarious  Teuton, 
wholly  to  God,  were  loved  and  venerated  with  a  special 
wonder.  No  small  part  of  the  glory  of  Cuthbert  be- 
longed not  to  the  missionary  or  the  bishop,  but  to  the 
lonely  anchorite  on  Fame.  And  at  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century  Guthlac,^  the  Mercian  noble,  won  a 
fame  that  was  almost  as  great  as  his. 

female,  was  immured  in  a  cell  or  anchorage,  often  built  near  some 
monastery  or  church  ;  the  hermit  was  free  to  leave  his  cell,  which 
was  usually  placed  in  a  more  or  less  lonely  spot,  and  wander 
whither  he  would.  The  distinction  however  was  not  clearly 
observed  in  these  early  times,  and  Guthlac  is  called  a  hermit  and 
an  anchoret  indifferently."  Hunt,  Eitglish  Church  597-1066,  p.  229. 
^  For  Guthlac  see  Bede,  Plummer's  edition,  ii.  342,  ii.  xxxvi  : 
Nova  Legenda^  ii.  1-13,  from  the  early  life  by  Felix  (in  Acta  SS.^ 


220  The  English  Saints 

His  was  a  remarkable  life.  He  was  one  of  mien  so 
ji^racious  and  kindly,  says  his  earliest  biographer,  that 
he  drew  all  men's  hearts  to  him.'  Weary  of  a  life  of 
inaction,  when  he  was  a  3oung  man,  he  formed  a  sort 
of  brigand  compan\-,  with  which  he  l)ci,fan  violently 
to  rage  against  the  hostile  peoples  —  doubtless  the 
Brythons — to  attack  their  towns,  destroy  their  forts, 
and  win  the  glory  of  inestimable  fame.  After  many 
wild  \cars  he  was  suddenly  touched  \Nith  the  thought 
of  the  vanity  of  all  things,  and  with  impetuous  eager- 
ness left  his  freebooters  and  set  himself  to  learn  hymns 
and  sacred  lore,  and  to  live  a  life  of  strict  asceticism, 
with  the  monks  of  Repton.  When  he  heard  in  the  daily 
legends  of  the  lives  of  solitaries  he  became  emulous  to 
imitate  them,  and  he  sought  the  deepest  retirement  in 
the  fens,  which  even  five  centuries  later  were  more  than 
a  hundred  miles  long,-  and  found  the  loneliest  spot  at 
Crowland,  and  thus  he  entered  on  his  new  life  under 
the  protection  of  S.  Bartholomew,  on  whose  day  he 
first  came  to  the  isle."'  With  him  when  he  returned 
finally  to  settle  there  he  took  two  boys. 

At  first  he  led  a  life  of  almost    complete  isolation, 

April,  ii.  38).  The  life  by  Felix  is  printed  from  the  Harleian  MS. 
by  Mr.  W.  de  dray  Birch  in  Memorials  of  S.  Guiklac,  Wisbech, 
1 88 1.  Dictio7iary  of  Christian  Biography:  Hunt,  Engl.  Ch.^ 
pp.  229-230  :  Bright,  Early  English  Church  History^  353,  395  : 
Kingsley,  Hermits,  a  very  sketch)'  chapter  :  Hardy,  DescriptiiJC 
Catalogue,  i.  404-410:  see  also  Plummer,  Two  A.  S.  Chrons.,  ii.  y]. 

'  Cf.  Nova  Legemla,  ii.  i  2,  with  Goodwin,  Anglo-Saxon  Life 
of  Gulhlac  (a  translation  of  F'elix),  p.  15. 

-   W.  Malm.,  Gesta  Pontif,  p.  321. 

"'  If  this  was  the  second  visit,  as  the  D.  Chr.  Biog.  tliinks  certain 
and  Dr.  Bright  doubtful,  the  t\\()  aie  made  into  one  by  the  No'ui 
Legenda. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  221 

solitary  prayer,  conversing  with  God,  but  tormented 
by  strange  visions  of  devastating  Brythons  (the  natural 
expression  doubtless  of  the  remorse  he  felt  for  his  past 
ravages)  and  of  grim  spirits  amid  sulphurous  flames.^ 
His  severe  fasts  told  upon  his  health,  till  he  began  to 
see  that  it  was  the  devil  who  tempted  him  to  unwise 
austerities.''  But  before  long  the  fame  of  his  extra- 
ordinary life  grew  and  men  came  from  all  quarters  to 
talk  with  him.  He  was  ordained  priest  so  that  he  was 
able  to  minister  to  those  who  lived  in  the  fens  around 
him.  A  venerable  priest,  perhaps  from  Bardney,  would 
often  visit  him,  and  it  was  through  what  he  saw  and 
would  tell  that  in  later  years  the  memories  of  the 
hermit's  life  were  preserved.  At  last  there  came  to  be 
quite  a  settlement  in  the  lonely  fen,  farms  and  some- 
thing like  settled  cultivation  and  a  harvest,  huts  and  a 
church.  But  to  the  end  it  was,  in  spite  of  distractions 
and  the  delight  which  his  visitors  had  in  a  sort  of 
sanctified  gossip,  a  solitary  life  that  Guthlac  led.  He 
would  only  see  strangers  at  stated  times  ;  for  the  rest 
of  the  hours  he  lived  with  the  wild  creatures  around 

1  The  illustrations  of  the  spirits  in  the  Harleian  MS.,  reproduced 
by  Mr.  W.  Birch,  are  the  delightful  creatures  of  a  horrid  nightmare. 
They   are   described    in  unpleasant    detail    by  Felix   {Memoridls^ 

P-25)- 

-  Nova  Legeiida^  ii.  3.  "  Erat  enim  diabolice  persuasionis  in- 
tentio  ut  ille  prorsus  a  comestione  cessaret  sibique  mortis  exitium 
diuturnitate  jejunii  provocaret.  Si  enim  jejunium  regulam  modestie 
et  discretionis  excedit,  subito  languet  corpus,  deficit  spiritus,  aufer- 
tur  orationi  affectus,  operationi  cffectus,  caligat  contemplationis 
effectus.  Et  intelligens  Guthlacus  diabolice  temptationis  astutiam, 
invocata  Christi  virtute  psallebat  :  Exurgat  deus  et  dissipentur  in- 
imici  eius,  et  fugiant,  qui  oderunt  eum,  a  facie  ejus."  Cf.  Vita  S- 
Guthlacixvi  Birch's  Memorials^  pp.  23-24. 


222  ThI'    English  Saints 

him  and  with  God.  He  won  like  S.  Cuthbert  the  con- 
fidence of  birds  and  animals,  and  fishes  would  eat  from 
his  hand.  "  Who  hath  led  his  life  after  God's  will," 
he  said,  "  the  wild  beasts  and  birds  become  friendly 
with  him,  and  to  the  man  who  will  live  away  from  the 
world  the  angels  draw  nigh  ;"  and  "  Have  you  never  read 
that  to  him  who  is  joined  to  God  in  a  pure  spirit  all  things 
join  themselves  in  God  ?"  So  the  swallows  nestled  in 
his  arms  and  the  wild  birds  knew  him  as  a  friend.^ 

Such  was  the  man  who  first  touched  the  imagination 
of  the  English  with  the  romance  of  a  purely  hermit  life. 
His  earliest  biographer  found  in  him  much  akin  to 
Cuthbert,  and  he  came  to  fill  something  of  the  place 
in  the  veneration  of  the  Midland  folk  that  the  hermit- 
bishop  filled  in  Northumbria.  And  the  hermit  passed, 
with  him,  into  the  popular  religious  life  of  England. 
As  late  as  the  thirteenth  century  S.  Robert  of  Knares- 
borough  won  a  place  of  great  fame  among  the  saints  of 
Yorkshire-  for  simple  life   of  holiness,  seclusion,   and 

charity  : 

"  When  he  was  comen  to  liis  chapelle 
In  deep  devotion  for  to  dwelle 
Poor  men  that  were  penniless 
He  sent  them  food  of  fish  and  flesh. "'^ 

The  characteristic  interest  of  the  hermit-life  and  the 
characteristic  expression  that  it  was  of  the  nature  of 
the  English  folk,  lies  no  doubt  in  its  breezy,  out-of-door 

'  Felix,  in  Memorials^  pp.  5-37. 

^  See  Memorials  of  Fountains  (Surtees,  Society  1S63).  He  was 
never  formally  canonized  but  the  church  of  Pannall  near  Knarcs- 
borouyh  is  dedicated  t(j  him.  See  Arnold-Forster,  CliurcJi  Dedica- 
tions^ ii.  120. 

•'  Mr.  Baring-Gould  has  skelclied  his  career  \ery  happil\-  in  liis 
Lives  of  the  Saints,  September  24. 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  223 

atmosphere.  But  the  life  among  birds  and  beasts,  not 
for  the  sake  of  their  destruction,  but  for  that  feehng  of 
companionship  which  God  has  placed  in  all  animals, 
was  at  its  best  a  Christlike  life.  Men  sought  to  imitate 
the  ways  of  Him  without  whose  knowledge  not  a 
sparrow  falls  to  the  ground.  When  life  among  men 
was  reckless  and  sava.ge,  among  the  beasts  there  was  a 
life  which  could  at  once  be  natural  and  full  of  beauty. 
The  hermits  were  lirst  men  who  loved  an  out-of-door 
life :  then  they  were  apostles  of  gentleness  and  humanity. 
In  the  background  the  sense  of  adventure  and  peril  :  in 
the  front  the  passionate  insistence  on  a  life  of  purity, 
simplicity,  and  humble  following  of  Christ. 

There  is  another  famous  example.  In  the  life  of  no 
English  saint  is  the  adventurous  aspect  so  strangely  a 
prelude  to  the  life  of  devotion  as  in  that  of  S.  Godric, 
pirate  and  anchorite.^  He  was  born  about  the  time 
when  England  passed  under  the  rule  of  the  Normans. 
In  his  youth  he  was  a  great  traveller.  Rustic  and 
unlearned '-^  he  became  a  merchant,  and  often  fared 
oversea.  He  went  to  Scotland,  Flanders,  Denmark, 
even  to  Rome  and  Jerusalem,  combining  it  would  seem 
trade,  piety,  and  pilgrimage.     All  this  while   he    had 

1  William  of  Newburgh,  ii.  20 

-  The  life  of  Godric  by  Mr.  T.  A.  Archer  in  the  Dictionary  of 
National  Biography  is  marked  by  his  extraordinary  accuracy  and 
width  of  erudition,  and  gives  a  full  list  of  authorities.  He  is  how- 
ever in  error  in  ascribing  the  Surtees  edition  of  Reginald  to  Raine  ; 
it  was  edited  by  Mr.  Stevenson  and  published  in  1847,  not  1845. 
See  also  a  note  of  Mr.  Archer's  in  the  E7igl.  Hist.  Rev.,  July,  1902. 
The  Life  of  S.  Godric  by  Reginald  is  published  by  Surtees  Soc, 
1847:  that  in  Nova  Lcgenda.,  i.  475  sqq..,  is  "abridged  frcKii  the 
anonymous  life  in  MS.  Harl.  322  which  forms  the  basis  of 
Reginald's  more  detailed  life." 


224  The  English  Saints 

worn,  says  one  who  came  to  know  him  well,  "  a  monk's 
heart  beneath  a  layman's  clothes  ":  and  to  S.  James  of 
Compostella  he  went  as  a  true  pilgrim.  He  had  loved 
to  visit  Holy  Island  and  Fame  in  memory  of  the  dear 
S.  Cuthbert^;  and  gradually  the  desire  for  a  solitary 
life  like  his  settled  down  upon  his  heart.  At  first  he 
lived  near  Carlisle.  Then  he  moved  to  the  lonely 
valley  of  the  upper  Wear,  where  the  river  rushes 
swiftly  over  the  jagged  stones  and  the  glittering  frag- 
ments of  tiuor  spar,  and  where  wolves  then  had  their 
lairs.  There  he  lived  with  an  aged  English  hermit.  On 
the  death  of  his  companion  he  again  crossed  the  sea, 
and  in  the  Holy  Land  bathed  in  the  Jordan  and  wor- 
shipped at  the  sepulchre  of  the  Lord.  On  his  return 
he  sought  first  the  valley  of  the  Esk,  not  far  from 
Hilda's  famous  house;  and  after  that  he  was  door- 
keeper at  the  splendid  church  of  S.  Giles  in  Durham, 
and  then  served  also  in  the  cathedral.  At  last  he  heard 
two  shepherds  speak  of  Finchale  on  the  Wear  not 
far  away- :  for  there  it  came  to  him  as  a  revelation 
that  he  should  dwell.  There  he  settled,  built  himself 
a  chapel,  living  at  first  with  his  kindred  and  afterwards 
alone.  His  life  of  austerity  was  said  to  be  almost 
beyond  what  man  can  endure."  It  was  a  life  of  con- 
templation, broken  by  occasional  visits  from  those  who 
would  learn  from  him  and  with  whom  he  would  gladly 
speak.     In  extreme  old  age  he  sent  messages  to  Arch- 

1  Reginald  (Surtees  Soc),  pp.  31-32. 

-  It  is  now,  or  was  when  I  saw  it  last,  almost  exactly  as  when 
S.  Godric  came  to  it.  Cf.  the  description  in  Reginald,  and  in 
William  of  Newburgli  ii.  20. 

•*  Cf.  the  terrible  stories  of  his  food  and  his  vermin  Nova  Lci^cnda 
i-  47V- 


The  Ideal  of  Monk  and  Hermit  225 

bishop  Becket  and  foresaw  his  misfortunes.  At  all 
great  festivals  the  house  of  Durham  would  send  over 
a  priest  to  say  Mass  for  him :  and  as  he  grew  to 
extreme  age  he  would  often  speak  of  his  past  life  as 
well  as  beg  spiritual  counsel.  It  was  far  from  the  ideal 
of  the  anchorite  to  be  useless.  He  cut  down  trees, 
made  a  garden  and  an  orchard,  and  grafted  apples 
upon  the  wild  stocks.  His  woodland  life  found  him 
friends  among  the  animals.  A  stag  that  was  destroying 
his  young  shoots  he  bound  and  led  gently  away :  and 
he  as  easily  rid  himself  of  a  whole  herd.  He  sheltered 
a  stag  from  its  pursuers,  for  he  "  would  not  be  a  traitor 
to  his  guest,"  he  said.  The  many  stories  told  of  him  all 
show  him,  after  he  gave  up  his  seafaring  life,  to  have  been 
a  man  of  extreme  simplicity,  grievously  vexed  by  tempta- 
tions of  the  flesh,  but  of  extraordinary  determination  in 
all  things  that  touched  his  conscience.  The  country 
folk  laughed  at  him,  tried  to  make  him  join  in  their 
drinking  bouts,  set  snares  for  him,  were  not  far  from 
planning  his  death  :  the  marauding  Scots  killed  his 
cow,  broke  into  his  chapel,  tied  him  up  and  threatened 
him :  devils,  he  thought,  were  constantly  tempting 
him  :  and  the  waters  of  the  Wear  in  spite  often  made 
his  hermitage  an  unapproachable  island.  But  the  old 
pirate  was  hardy  to  the  last,  though  crippled  by  deadly 
disease,  and  it  was  with  a  flash  of  his  old  adventurous 
spirit  and  a  memory  of  the  strange  perils  of  his  youth 
that  he  answered  a  noble  knight  who  visited  him  in  his 
last  sickness.  He  must  say  quickly  all  that  was  on  his 
mind,  he  told  him,  for  soon  was  he  to  pass  the  borders 
of  the  great  sea.^  The  wondering  respect  that  men 
^  Reginald,  Libdlus  (Surtees  Soc),  p.  317. 

15 


226  The  English  Saints 

paid  to  his  memory  was  due  no  doubt  partly  to  the 
romantic  interest  of  his  life,  its  stirring  scenes  followed 
by  its  sixty  years  of  solitude,  and  partly  to  the  great 
age  to  which  he  attained,  for  he  died  when  he  was  over 
an  hundred.^ 

He  was  a  vivid  picture,  to  the  imagination  of  the 
English  folk,  of  adventurous  experience  quenched  in 
extreme  asceticism.  He  seemed  to  have  brought  the 
great  ascetic  Saint  back  to  earth  again  :  "  S.  John  Baptist 
whom  he  more  especially  loved,"  says  William  of  New- 
burgh,  "  often  visited,  informed  and  strengthened  him." 
Pious  monks  as  well  as  inquisitive  lay  folk  went  to  see 
him  as  he  lay  before  his  little  altar  in  the  last  days  of 
his  life,  and  heard  him  murmur  again  and  again  the 
familiar  words  of  the  Gloria  Patri.  To  the  last  there 
lingered  on  his  venerable  face  "a  surprising  dignity  and 
an  unique  grace."-  From  such  men  the  English  people, 
with  their  materialistic  outlook,  had  much  to  learn. 

It  was  this  influence  indeed,  seen  in  monk  and  hermit 
alike,  which  did  much  to  mould  the  English  ideal  of 
public  service,  a  life  of  principle  and  of  rule,  looking  to 
high  aims,  never  to  selfish  ends.  The  unselfish  devotion 
of  the  saints  set  its  mark  on  the  thought  and  work  of 
England's  sons. 

1  See  Mr.  Archer's  argument  in  7).\./>.,  amply  supported  by  the 
details  of  his  last  years  and  sicknesses  wliich  betoken  extreme  old 
age. 

2  W.  Ncub.  as  above. 


LECTURE  VI 

THE  STATESMEN  SAINTS 

"For  our  citizenship  is  in  Heaven." — Philippians  iii.  20. 

In  the  Church  of  Christ  every  duty  of  man  is  sacred 
and  transfigured.  Earthly  duties  are  the  reflection  of 
the  heavenly.  Work  for  God  involves  of  necessity 
strenuous  work  for  man. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  with  their  strivings  for  unity 
and  for  definition,  there  was  a  great  part  to  be  played 
by  ecclesiastics  as  statesmen.  Now  that  the  mists  of 
misrepresentation  have  cleared  away,  we  do  not  deny 
that  it  was  an  honest  part,  a  noble  part.  No  men  did 
more  for  the  welding  together  of  the  races  on  English 
soil  than  the  priests  who  made  the  main  work  of  their 
lives  the  service  of  the  State. 

The  list  begins  with  a  name  as  great  as  any  that 
follow. 

With  regard  to  the  statesmanship  of  Dunstan  we 
are  now  in  no  more  doubt  than  we  are  of  his  religious 
ideal. 1     We    know  that   he  was   the   strong  and  wise 

^  The  vindication  of  S.  Dunstan  is  due  to  Bishop  Stubbs,  w  hose 
masterly  edition  of  the  Memorials  (Rolls  Series,  1874)  ^^'as  the 
foundation  of  our  new  interest  in  the  great  saint  and  statesman. 
See  also  Mr.  Hunt's  article  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography 
and  his  History  of  the  English  Church  befo}-e  the  Norman  Congi/est^ 
[  237  ]  15-3 


228  The  Ent.lisii  Saints 

counsellor  of  a  j^rcat  king^,  the  last  of  the  great 
monarchs  of  Alfred's  house.  The  laws  of  Edgar, 
securing  even-handed  justice  for  poor  as  well  as  rich, 
the  great  police  system  which  he  organized,  the  equal 
rights  secured  to  Englishman  and  Dane,  all  speak 
eloquently  of  the  constructive  fellow-work  of  king 
and  archbishop.  No  less  impressi\'e  are  the  Church 
laws  at  a  time  when  Church  and  State  together  drew 
up  laws  for  both  aspects  of  the  national  life.  They 
show  an  earnest  desire  for  religious  reformation  and 
for  the  equality  of  men  in  the  things  of  God,  and  an 
eagerness  to  profit  by  foreign  models  from  which 
English  insularity  had  so  much  to  learn.  The  fiction 
that  Dunstan  was  a  persecutor  of  the  married  clergy 
has  no  foundation  :  but  he  has  the  glory  of  being  the 
vindicator  of  the  purity  of  marriage  even  in  the  king's 
court,  a  fit  work  indeed  for  a  great  minister  of  the 
crown.  All  this  we  know  from  contemporary  evidence: 
and  we  have  the  very  words  in  which  he  declared  to 
the  king  the  duties  of  his  office.  The  words  of  the 
king,  laid  upon  Christ's  altar,^  were  those  which  are 
given  in  Latin  in  the  pontifical  of  Egbert  of  York,-  and 
the  king  uses  in  his  oath  still.  But  to  them  Dunstan 
added  words,  which  are  also  preserved,  and  may  very 
well  be  those  of  his  sermon  at  the  Coronation — 

"  The  Christian  king  who  keeps  these  engagements, 
earns  for  himself  worldly  honour,  and  the  eternal  God 

pp.  326-368.  There  is  very  much  of  interest  connected  with 
Dunstan  and  his  work  in  the  anonymous  life  of  S.  Oswald  of  York 
{His tor.  York,  i.  399  sqq.). 

1  Memorials,  p.  355. 

-  See  Stubbs's  Sclecl  Charters,  jx  62. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  229 

also  is  merciful  to  him,  both  in  the  present  life  and  in 
the  eternal  life  that  never  ends.  But  if  he  violate  that 
which  was  promised  to  God,  then  shall  it  forthwith 
right  soon  grow  worse  among  his  people,  and  in  the 
end  it  all  turns  to  the  worst,  unless  he  in  his  life  lirst 
amend  it.  Ah  !  dear  lord,  take  diligent  heed  to  thyself 
by  all  means ;  often  call  to  mind  this,  that  thou  wilt  at 
God's  doom  have  to  produce  and  lead  forth  the  flock 
of  which  thou  hast  been  made  shepherd  in  this  life, 
then  give  account  how  thou  heldedst  that  which  Christ 
afore  purchased  by  His  blood.  The  right  of  a  hal- 
lowed king  is  that  he  judge  no  man  unrighteously 
and  that  he  defend  and  protect  widows  and  step- 
children and  serf-folk  .  .  .  and  that  he  have  old  and 
wise  and  sober  men  for  counsellers,  and  set  righteous 
men  for  stewards,  for  whatsoever  they  do  unrighteously 
by  his  fault  he  must  render  account  of  it  all  on  Dooms- 
day."^ Well  did  the  Enghsh  folk  see  in  him  a  true 
guide  in  troubled  times-  and  wish  him  the  "  triumphal 
crown  of  justice."  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  it 
^\  as  for  his  political  work  as  well  as  for  his  holy  life 
that  men  honoured  him  in  later  days.  He  was  a  saint, 
constant  in  prayers  and  vigils,  diligent  in  the  pious 
work  of  teaching  and  preaching,  fervent  like  the  blessed 
Martin  at  the  mass  with  eyes  and  hands  ever  lifted  up 
to  heaven  and  full  of  devout  tears  in  the  performance 
of  sacred  ofhces^ :  but  there  were  many  other  bishops 
as  holy.  There  was  no  other  statesman  so  great,  and 
it  was  the  knowledge  of  his  greatness  which  gave  such 

1  The  Anglo-Saxon  is  printed  from  MS.  Cotton,  Cleopatra  B.  13, 
f.  56,  in  the  Memorials^  pp.  356-357. 

-  See  Epistola  ad  Dunstaniiiii,  Memorials^  p.  372. 
^  Memorials,  p.  50. 


230  The  English  Saints 

power  to  the  records  of  his  hfe  that  were  written  within 
a  few  years  of  his  death  and  dedicated  the  one  to  Arch- 
bishop iElfric,  the  other  to  Archbishop  ^Ifeah.  Truly 
"  he  was  canonized  in  popular  regard  almost  from  the 
day  he  died.  He  was  the  favourite  saint  of  the  Mother 
Church  of  England  for  more  than  a  century  and  a  half, 
during  which  there  were  numbered  among  his  centuries, 
the  scholar  Elfric,  the  martyr  Elphege,  Lanfranc  the 
statesman,  and  Anselm  the  doctor  and  confessor ;  his 
glory  was  at  last  eclipsed,  but  it  was  by  no  less  a  hero 
than  Thomas  Becket.  The  memory  of  his  greatness 
was  permanent,  or  the  belief  in  his  miracles  would  have 
been  impossible."^  Amid  the  remembrance  of  the  tales 
which  the  aged  saint  had  told  to  the  children  of  his 
palace,  stories  of  God's  blessings  to  him  and  of  His 
merciful  preservation  oftentimes  in  danger,  stories  of 
temptation  and  of  meditations  and  dreams,  are  mingled 
tales  of  wonder  and  miracles,  in  their  first  form  easily 
explainable  but  to  grow  in  later  years  into  the  kind  of 
miracles  that  do  not  happen. 

Yet  the  chief  characteristic  at  least  of  the  earliest 
biography  of  all  is  indubitably  its  plain  truthfulness, 
its  touch  of  personal  impression  and  personal  remem- 
brance. Dunstan,  we  feel,  was  not  only  a  great  man 
but  a  man  to  be  loved.  His  long  hours  of  prayer,  the 
intense  earnestness  of  his  preaching,  the  visits  at 
night  to  the  sacred  scenes  of  the  first  Christian  mission 
to  the  English,  the  beautiful  story  of  his  last  com- 
munion and  his  peaceful  end  with  the  words  "  the 
Lord  is  gracious  and  merciful :  He  hath  given  meat 
unto  them  that  fear  Him,"  were  memories  long  pre- 
'   Slubljs,  Inlrutluctiun  to  Memorials,  p.  ix. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  231 

served  in  the  land  which  knew  him  as  a  strong  ruler 
and  the  companion  of  a  strong  king.  The  name  of 
the  good  man,  who  tried  to  teach  the  English  folk  by 
training  up  learned  clerks,  of  the  great  ruler  who  kept 
the  Danes  at  bay,  was  cherished  by  those  who  knew 
the  dignity  and  sweetness  of  his  religious  life.  Loyalty, 
untarnished  honour,  humanity,  a  hallowing  reverence 
for  God,  these  were  the  marks  of  true  statesmanship 
which  Englishmen  looked  for  and  which  they  found  in 
Dunstan  and  in  Alfred.  It  seemed  meet  that  it  should 
be  no  Pope  but  a  king  who  should  order  his  mass  day 
to  be  observed  throughout  the  land.^ 

The  life  of  Dunstan  makes  one  fact  plain.  It  can 
hardly  be  said  with  truth  that  the  medieval  conception 
of  sanctity  involved  an  abnegation  of  political  respon- 
sibility, though  such  a  statement  has  often  been  made. 
It  was  quite  clearly  understood  that  the  duty  to  God 
involved  a  duty  to  the  neighbour,  and  that  this  implied 
also  some  recognition  of  duty  in  regard  to  the  political 
as  well  as  the  religious  aspect  of  the  national  life.  But 
it  is  unquestionable  that  the  great  majority  of  the  lives 
\\ith  which  we  have  been  concerned  are  illustrations  of 
the  feeling  that  the  Church  should  not  be  concerned 
with  politics  as  such,  and  that  the  main,  if  not  the 
whole,  duty  of  man  was  to  preserve  the  spiritual  life 
amid  the  pressure  of  other  interests.  The  life  in  God 
is  the  true  life  :  to  that  all  other  claims  must  be  sub- 
ordinated. So  the  medieval  thinkers  would  say.  But 
some  of  them  would  rise  to  the  higher  conception  of 

1  Cnut  and  his  Witan  in  988  gave  this  order,  which  has  been 
spoken  of  not  strictly  correctly  as  "  the  canonization  of  S.  Dunstan.' 
See  Thorpe,  Ancient  Laws,  ii.  370. 


232  The  English  Saints 

the  unity  of  all  life,  of  all  diit}-,  in  God  Who  made  and 
guided  the  world. 

If  it  \\as  best  to  leave  the  world  and  be  alone  with 
God,  or  to  devote  the  life  to  His  service  in  succouring 
the  souls  and  bodies  of  men  Whom  He  had  made  in 
His  image,  if  S.  Cuthbert  and  S.  Martin  were  types  of 
character  of  permanent  attractiveness,  there  was  also 
growing  throughout  the  history  of  medieval  England 
a  strong  sense  of  the  power  of  lives  lived  in  the  public 
eye  but  devoted  to  a  principle  which  elevated  them 
above  their  surroundings.  With  the  re-introduction  of 
England  into  European  politics  after  the  Norman  Con- 
quest this  feeling  became  emphasized.  The  English 
saints  before  the  Norman  days  were  mainly  missionaries, 
monks,  or  hermits,  or  kings  who  had  the  interests  of  at 
least  one  of  these.  Afterwards  there  was  a  new  de- 
velopment. It  was  due  to  new  interests,  new  questions, 
new  education,  new  men.  What  the  new  questions 
and  interests  were  is  perhaps  a  point  of  minor  impor- 
tance. It  is  for  us  rather  to  trace  how  the  men  met 
them  and  dealt  with  them. 

The  questions  were,  in  various  forms,  aspects  of  the 
problem  of  the  relations  between  Church  and  State. 
As  presented  by  the  Norman  and  Angevin  kings,  the 
State  appeared  to  Christian  thinkers  as  a  material 
rather  than  a  moral  or  intellectual  or  religious  force. 
Thus  they  were  championing  the  cause  of  religious 
liberty  and  intellectual  freedom  when  they  stood  forth 
against  the  demands  of  the  kings.  The  contest  con- 
cerning investitures  had  a  far-reaching  consequence 
behind  it.  Was  the  State  to  control  every  exercise  of 
human   activity  ?     Was  every  power  to  be  used  only 


The  Statesmen  Saints  233 

under  its  control  ?  Were  the  limits  of  freedom,  not 
only  in  action  but  in  thought,  to  be  controlled  by  the 
State  ?  When  the  Emperors,  and  the  English  kings 
who  imitated  them,  claimed  to  bestow  the  signs  of 
spiritual  authority,  it  was  implied,  consciously  or  un- 
consciousl}',  that  all  freedom  of  the  human  soul,  all 
approach  from  man  to  God,  even  all  relations  between 
God  and  man,  could  be  enjoyed  only  through  the 
sanction  of  the  Sovereign  State.  Hobbes  had  his 
forerunners  in  practice  in  Henry  of  Franconia,  Caesar 
and  Augustus,  and  Henry  the  Clerk,  King  of  the 
English  and  Duke  of  the  Normans. 

To  meet  the  new  problem  new  men  arose.  In 
England  we  are  met  for  the  first  time  clearly  by  the 
figure  of  the  political  saint.  Dunstan  was  a  saintly 
statesman  who  was  confronted  by  no  question  of  diver- 
gent principle.  Anselm  was  a  saint  whom  the  difficulty 
confronted  and  profoundly  affected  the  current  of  his 
life.  Thomas  Becket  was  one  whom  it  transformed  as  a 
statesman  and  as  a  man.  With  the  Norman  Conquest 
England  reached,  under  different  conditions,  the  posi- 
tion with  which  Prankish  chroniclers  four  centuries 
before  were  familiar.^  The  saint  became  a  prominent 
figure  in  the  political  world. 

1  "  Ce  qu'il  y  a  surtout  de  remarquable  chez  les  saints  du  sixieme 
et  du  septieme  siecle,  c'est  qu'ils  n'dtaient  pas  de  solitaires.  lis 
n'ont  pas  vdcu  en  reclus  et  loin  du  monde.  lis  furent,  au  contraire, 
sauf  quelques  exceptions,  fort  meles  a  la  vie  du  monde.  On  peut 
compter  que  plus  de  la  moitie  de  ces  saints  sortaient  des  plus 
grandes  families,  ont  ^t^  elevds  k  la  cour  des  rois,  et  ont  exerce  des 
fonctions  civiles.  Beaucoup  ont  dte  comtes  avant  d'etre  eveques. 
II  en  est  meme  plusieurs  qui,  en  devenant  eveques,  n'ont  pas  cessd 
d'etre  assidus  au  palais  des  rois.  Plusieurs  se  signal^rent  comma 
administrateurs  et  hommes  d'etat.     Ainsi  une  vie  de  saint  n'est  pas 


234  The  Exr,T,isn  Saints 

There  are  two  great  names  which  come  before  us 
among  the  English  archbishops  when  we  turn  to 
consider  the  relations  between  Church  and  State. 
In  character,  life,  work,  there  were  profound  differences 
between  them.  Brie%,  Anselm  was  a  saint  whom  his 
holiness  made  into  a  statesman,  Becket  a  statesman 
whom  the  keenness  of  his  poHtical  insight  helped  to 
make  into  a  saint.  But  the  principle  in  each  case, 
as  it  seemed  to  the  men  of  the  Middle  Ages,  was  the 
same.  Christ  is  Righteousness.  He  who  contends  for 
righteousness  contends  for  Christ.  The  history  of  an 
English  mart\r  lirst  emphasized  this  lesson  for 
Englishmen. 

The  mart}-rdom  of  S.  Alphege  (Tilfeah)  was  recog- 
nized at  once  in  England  as  giving  him  place  among 
the  saints.  It  was  on  the  19th  of  April,  1012,  that 
he  was  barbarously  murdered  at  Greenwich  by  the 
drunken  Danes,  because  he  would  not  buy  his  liberty 
at  the  cost  of  privation  and  suffering  to  his  tenants. 
The  next  day  he  was  buried  in  London  at  S.  Paul's 
with  great  reverence,  and  in  1033  Canute,  to  show 
both  his  sympathy  with  English  national  feeling  and 
his  separation  from  the  ill  deeds  of  his  old  heathen 
kin,  joined  in  the  solemn  translation  of  the  body  to 
Canterbury. 

But  his  formal  canonization  was  delayed.  Was  he 
really  a  martyr  ?     He  had  refused  to  gather  a  ransom^ 

du  tout  la  vie  d'un  moine  ;  c'est  piesque  toujours  la  vie  d'un  homme 
qui  s'cst  occupd  des  affaires  publiques  et  a  6t6  en  relations  inces- 
santcs  avec  les  rois  et  les  grands  de  la  terrc."  P'ustel  dc  Coulanges, 
Ln  Monarchie  fninque,  ed.  1888,  pp.  11-12. 

1  He  uolde  hcom  nan  fcoh  be  haten  :  A.  S.  Chro/i.  1012.  Cf. 
Thictniar,  in  I'ertz,  Mo/i.  Hist.  Ceriii,^  iii.  849.     The  story  is  given 


The  Statesmen  Saints  235 

and  drunken  Danes  had  killed  him  with  the  skulls  and 
bones  that  were  over  from  their  feast :  one  on  whom 
the  day  before  he  had  laid  hands  in  confirmation,  with 
"an  impious  piety"  had  ended  his  sufferings  with 
his  battle-axe.  Lanfranc  debated  the  question  with 
Anselm.  The  English  custom  of  local  canonization 
was  one  which  he  could  not  wholly  overcome,  yet  could 
not,  with  his  obedience  to  system,  wholly  approve. 
"  The  English  make  some  of  them  they  venerate  into 
saints  :  when  I  try  to  discover  what  manner  of  men 
they  were,  I  am  not  clear  as  to  their  sanctity.  Alphege 
is  reckoned  not  only  saint  but  martyr :  yet  he  died  not 
for  confessing  Christ,  but  for  refusing  to  ransom  his 
life  for  money."  Anselm's  answer  is  characteristic  of 
him  :  and  it  vindicates  the  true  religious  feeling  of  the 
English  race.  They  had  seen  to  the  core  of  the  matter. 
They  saw  above  formal  systems  to  the  reality  of  the 
obligation  of  Christ.  Anselm  compared  Alphege  to 
S.  John  Baptist,^  who  died  "  not  for  refusing  to  deny 
Christ  but  for  refusing  to  keep  back  the  truth."  Christ 
he  said  "  is  Truth  and  Righteousness  :  he  who  dies  for 
Truth  and  Righteousness  dies  for  Christ :  and  whoso 
dies  for  Christ  is  by  the  witness  of  the  Church  esteemed 
a  martyr."  It  is  a  great  and  terrible  sin  to  deny  Christ: 
Alphege  refused  to  commit  the  far  lesser  sin  of  laying 
a  burden  on  his  people.     "  Much  rather  then  he  would 

in  the  A.  S.  Chron.:  in  Florence  of  Worcester,  i.  165:  Osbern's  Life 
of  S.  Alphege,  Anglia  Sacra,  ii.  122:  Nova  Legenda,  i.  381  sqq.^ 
abridges  life  by  Osbern  in  Bollandist  Ada  SS.,  Apr.,  II.,  p.  628. 

1  Perhaps  he  had  in  mind  Bede,  Opera,  xi.  327,  who  uses  exactly 
the  same  argument,  that  S.  John  Baptist  because  he  died  for  the 
truth  died  for  Christ.  Cf.  also  the  MS.  sermon  at  Corpus  Christi 
College  quoted  by  Mr.  Flummcr,  Bede,  ii.  164. 


236  The  English  Saints 

not  have  denied  Christ.'"^  He  who  dies  for  righteous- 
ness dies  for  Christ :  it  was  a  lesson  which  many 
Enghsh  saints  were  to  make  emphatic  in  the  years  of 
oppression.  It  was  the  justification  of  decided  pohtical 
action  on  the  part  of  Churchmen  in  times  of  stress. 
S.  Anselm  himself  was  to  be  a  great  example.- 

William  Rufus  thought  that  when  an  archbishop 
became  his  man  he  was  bound  to  him  hand  and  foot :  on 
him  especially  as  a  liege  man  was  the  duty  of  implicit 
obedience  imperative.  Henry  I.,  less  brutal  in  practice, 
was  equally  convinced  in  theory.  By  the  hand-grip, 
and  even  more  by  the  gift  of  ring  and  staff,  the  ecclesi- 
astic became  the  King's  vassal  not  only  in  things 
temporal  but  in  things  spiritual  also.  That  is  the  signi- 
ficance of  Anselm's  long  struggle.  The  story  needs  no 
re-telling.^      He  was    not    an    Englishman,   he    was   a 

'  The  arguments  are  in  Eadmer,  De  Vita  et  Coiivcrsatione 
S.  Afiscl/ni;  ed.  Rule,  Rolls  Series,  pp.  350-352.  See  Rigg, 
S.  Anselm  of  Canterbury^  pp.  50-52  ;  Church,  S.  Anselm  (ed.  1895), 
p.  100. 

-  Cf.  the  letter  of  Herbert  (?  of  Bosliam)  to  Gregory  abbat  of 
Malmesbury  {^Materials  for  hist,  of  Bec/cet^  vol.  v.,  pp.  337-8),  who 
compares  S.  Alphege  with  S.  Anselm. 

^  For  Anselm,  see  especially  Eadmer's  Historia  Novorinn,  Vita 
S.  Ansel  mi  et  qucedam  miracula  ejus,  and  de  Vita  et  co?iversatione, 
all  in  Mr.  Rule's  Edition  Rolls  Series,  1884.  The  life  in  Nova 
Lege7tda,  i.  51  S(]q.,  is  from  Eadmer  as  printed  in  Bollandist  Acta 
SS.,  Apr.,  II.  863.  The  miracula  by  Eadmer  are  given  in  Lieber- 
niann  {Ungedruckte  Geschiclitsquelle?t,  pp.  301  sqq.).  Martin  Rule, 
on  Eadmer's  elaboration  of  the  first  four  boo/cs  of  the  Historia 
No7iorum  (Cambridge  Antiquarian  Society  Communications, 
\ol.  vi.),  argues  that  Eadmer  wrote  as  a  corrector,  rival  and  critic  of 
William  of  Malmesbury  and  that  neither  William  nor  Eadmer  pos- 
sessed authentic  documentary  evidence  of  the  terms  of  the  settle- 
ment between  Henry  and  Anselm.  But  this  does  not  affect  the 
main  question  of  principle  or  its  decision.     Mr.  Rule  notes   the 


The  Statesmen  Saints  237 

thinker,  a  sensitive  pietist,  a  man  of  the  character 
which  Enghshmen  never  appreciated  sympathetically. 

The  beauty  of  his  personal  character,  one  of  the  most 
saintly  and  simple  that  the  Middle  Ages  produced,  left 
little  mark  :  but  the  boldness  of  his  fight  for  principle 
was  not  forgotten.  The  principle  was  a  clear  one. 
The  Church  alone  has  the  right  and  the  duty  to  deal 
with  men's  souls :  all  power  to  help,  or  console,  or 
guide,  comes  to  her  from  God  alone.  The  brotherhood 
of  the  faithful  is  the  Body  of  Christ.  Outside  it  there 
are  powers  which  may  claim  to  dictate  new  standards 
that  are  not  the  standards  of  Christ,  in  politics,  in 
commerce,  in  learning,  in  all  common  intercourse  of 
man  and  man.  They  may  claim  also  to  control  the  free 
expression  of  the  soul  of  Christian  men  in  thought,  and 
prayer,  and  worship.  Such  claims  can  never  be  sub- 
mitted to  by  the  brothers  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Church 
of  the  Living  God.  All  rights  of  spiritual  and  moral 
and  industrial  combination  were  involved  in  Anselm's 
resistance  to  the  demands  of  the  State  that  investiture 
should  come  from  the  king :  and  of  the  leaders  of 
intellectual  freedom,  scientific,  philosophical,  religious, 
he  was  the  champion.  It  was  a  mere  accident,  as  we 
can  see  now,  that  this  involved  a  claim  for  obedience 
to  the  Roman  Pope  as  opposed  to  the  English  king. 
What  it  really  meant  was  the  impossibility  that  the 
liberty  of  the  human  soul  should  be  restrained  in 
fetters  of  man's  riveting. 

It  was  the  same  thought  ^^•hich  la\'  at  the  root  of  his 

reticence  of  Eadmer's  references  to  the  reigning  Sovereign  and  his 
advisers,  as  contrasted  with  the  freedom  of  utterance  after  their 
death  (pp.  250,  251,  280,  281). 


238  The  English  Saints 

philosophical  theology  and  of  his  practical  action.  Man 
in  all  things,  in  natural  virtue,  in  holiness  which  is 
above  nature,  is  beholden  to  God.^  Christ  came  to 
ransom  man  from  the  power  of  Satan  and  to  translate 
him  to  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God.- 
The  free  human  spirit,  liberated  by  the  Incarnate  Son, 
could  not  in  the  things  of  the  soul  be  in  bondage  to 
any  ordinance  of  carnal  man.  It  was  centuries  before 
Englishmen  came  to  appreciate  the  struggle  of  his  life. 
It  was  significant  that  it  was  not  till  the  Renaissance 
that  he  was  canonized.  But  meanwhile  Dante  with 
the  prescience  of  the  poet  and  prophet  had  placed 
him  in  the  circling  garland  of  those  who  surround  the 
Divine  Reason.'^  "It  is  his  right  place"  —  in  the 
beautiful  words  of  a  wise  saint  of  the  last  generation — 
"  in  the  noble  company  of  the  strong  and  meek,  who 
have  not  been  afraid  of  the  mightiest  and  have  not  dis- 
dained to  work  for  and  with  the  lowliest :  capable  of 
the  highest  things  ;  content,  as  living  before  Him  with 
whom  there  is  neither  high  nor  low,  to  minister  in  the 
humblest."*  How  great  a  contrast  was  he  who  next 
withstood  the  king  for  the  Church's  sake  ! 

The  career,  the  character,  the  fame  of  S.  Thomas  of 
Canterbury^  have  formed  an  inexhaustible  subject  for 

1  This  is  the  teaching  of  his  Tractaius  de  Concordia  Prcc- 
scienticE,  etc. 

2  This  is  the  teacliing  of  his  Cur  Dcus  Uotno. 
•■'  Paradiso,  c.  xii. 

■*  Dean  Church,  S.  A7iscliii,  p.  355. 

^'  I  do  not  understand  why  Miss  Norgate,  herself  perhaps  our 
first  authority  on  the  age  of  the  Angevins,  should  revert  to  the  form 
"  a  Becket,"  for  which  I  believe  that  there  is  no  early  authority. 
Mr.  Freeman  used  to  say  that  he  believed  that  there  \\as  a  sort  of 


The  Statesmen  Saints  239 

historical  writers  from  his  own  day  to  our  own.  Besides 
the  special  biographies  or  martyrologies  which  issued 
from  monastic  cells  within  a  century  of  the  archbishop's 
murder,  there  is  hardly  a  chronicler  of  the  age  who  is 
silent  as  to  his  fame.^  Gerald  de  Barri,  Gervase  of 
Canterbury,  William  of  Newburgh,  Ralph  of  Dissay, 
Dean  of  S.  Paul's,  and  many  another  witnessed  to 
the  interest  called  out  by  the  life  of  which  French  and 
English  biographers  had  endeavoured  to  collect  every 
detail.  Modern  writers,  with  their  minute  investiga- 
tions, give  us  occasion  to  reconsider  the  verdict  of 
history.  There  can  be  no  question  that  of  all  the 
English  Churchmen  of  the  middle  ages  Thomas 
Becket,  in  life  and  after  death,  was  by  far  the  most 
popular.  Indeed,  it  may  be  doubted  if  there  ever  has 
been  an  Englishman — soldier,  sailor,  statesman,  or 
priest — who  has  filled  so  large  a  space  in  the  affections 
of  his  countrymen  for  so  many  centuries.  If  this 
sounds  exaggerated  when  we  think  of  some  of  our 
heroes,  an  acquaintance  \Aith  the  books  written  and 
the  churches  built  between  1170  and  1538  will  supply 
a  sufficient  proof.  Simon  de  Montfort  was  soon  for- 
gotten ;  Elizabeth  was  never  really  popular,  nor  was 
Oliver  Cromwell.  Pitt's  great  fame  did  not  last  long 
except  in  one  class  of  the  community.     It  is  too  soon 

tendency  among  illiterate  people  to  add  "  h. "  after  every  saint  called 
Thomas,  and  add  that  his  old  nurse  would  talk  of  "  St.  Thomas  h, 
Didymus" ! 

1  A  list  of  the  original  authorities,  with  some  account  of  each,  is 
given  in  S.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  by  W.  H.  Hutton,  2nd  edition, 
1899.  The  life  in  the  Nova  Legenda,  ii.  373  sqq.,  is  from  the  Quad- 
rilogus.  Professor  W.  E.  Collins  has  published  an  admirable 
Lecture  on  Thomas  Becket^  1902. 


240  The  English  Saints 

to  speak  of  Gladstone  or  of  the  heroic  memory  of 
Gordon.  Nelson  stands  nearest  in  all  these  centuries 
to  Becket  as  a  hero  of  the  English  people. 

Within  three  years  of  his  death  the  clamorous  affec- 
tion of  Englishmen  had  made  the  Pope  declare  him  a 
canonized  saint.^  For  the  next  hundred  years  the 
chronicles  of  nearly  every  country  in  Europe  told  of  his 
fame  and  the  honour  paid  to  his  shrine  :  even  distant 
Iceland  had  its  own  story  of  his  life  and  death,  which 
entered  into  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  did  some- 
thing to  mould  the  relations  between  Church  and  State 
in  that  northern  land.  In  England  a  new  military 
order  took  him  for  its  patron  saint,''  and  the  great  city 
of  London  claimed  to  be  peculiarly  under  his  protec- 
tion. There  are  not  less  than  eight}'-four  churches 
certainly  dedicated  to  him  in  our  land;  most  probably 
the  number  is  considerably  above  that,  and  it  exceeds, 
I  believe,  any  other  dedication  except  that  to  the 
Mother   of    our    Lord.^     Every   relic    of  him    became 

^  Letter  of  Alexander  1 1 1,  to  the  Chapter  of  Canterbury,  Materials 
for  the  history  of  Abp.  Becket^  Rolls  Series,  vii.  545. 

■^  In  1 190,  on  the  capture  of  Acre,  a  military  order  was  founded 
in  honour  of  S.  Thomas,  and  he  was  often  called  Acrensis  as 
Patron  of  the  order. 

^  There  are  or  were  sixty-three  churches  in  England  known  to 
be  dedicated  to  S.  Thomas  Becket,  two  in  Wales,  and  nine 
monasteries,  etc.  Besides  these,  there  are  forty-one  churches  in 
England  dedicated  to  S.  Thomas,  of  which  twenty-one  are  dedi- 
cated to  S.  Thomas  the  Martyr.  Almost  certainly  these  latter  are 
named  after  Becket,  and  very  probably  several  of  the  former. 
These  figures  are  derived  from  a  list  drawn  up  by  Miss  Quillcr 
Couch  after  an  investigation  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Falconer 
Madan.  Miss  Arnold-Forster,  Church  Dedications,\g'w&s  70  to 
S.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  besides  which  36  ascribed  to  S.  Thomas 
Apostle  are  possibly  S.  Thomas  the  Martyr,      fie  also  appears 


The  Statesmen  Saints  241 

precious  beyond  the  richest  jewels.  At  Sens  they  pre- 
serve his  chasuble  and  stole  ;  there  are  other  vestments 
of  his,  I  believe,  at  Stonyhurst.  His  death  became  one 
of  the  commonest  subjects  for  pictures  or  frescoes  on 
the  walls  of  churches,  of  which  several,  such  as  the 
extremely  interesting  fifteenth-century  fresco  at  Picker- 
ing in  Yorkshire,^  still  exist.  But  the  chiefest  memorials 
remained,  of  course,  in  the  place  where  he  laid  down 
his  life.  His  tomb  at  Canterbury  became  the  most 
famous  place  of  pilgrimage  in  England.  The  Cathedral 
Church  indeed  is  practically  a  memorial  to  him,  nearly 
all  of  it,  through  one  chance  or  another,  having  been 
built  or  rebuilt  after  his  death,  and  largely  through  the 
riches  which  the  pilgrims  brought  to  his  shrine. 

Of  the  magnificence  of  the  shrine  just  before  the 
spoilers  scattered  its  treasures  we  have  the  accounts 
of  two  eye-witnesses.  One,  a  Venetian,  who  visited 
England  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIL,  speaks  of  its  in- 
comparable richness  as  far  beyond  anything  he  had 
ever  seen.-  The  other,  the  keenest  of  sightseers,  the 
scholar,  theologian,  humanist,  who  was  so  much  at  home 
among  the  English  folk,  Erasmus,  has  left  us  in  the 
form  of  a  dialogue  a  vivid  description  of  what  he  saw 
in  I524.'^ 

All  this  has  long  passed  away.  But  perhaps  the 
greatest  memorial  of  all  is  one  which  will  last  as  long 


three  times  in  double  dedications.  Besides  this,  almo'^t  every 
church  had  a  "  S.  Thomas  altar."  At  S.  Lawrence,  Reading,  this 
altar  was  made  as  late  as  1 502. 

1  See  B?i\g&ni,  Journal  of  Archaeological  Society,  vol.  x.  (1855). 

-   Venetian  Relation  of  England  (Camden  Society). 

^  Erasmus,  Colloquia,  pp.  331  sqq.,  ed.  Elzevir. 

16 


242  The  English  Saints 

as  men  read  books.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that 
the  memory  of  S.  Thomas  was  one  of  the  foundations 
of  EngHsh  hteraturc,  for  it  gave  us  Chaucer's  Canter- 
bury Tales.  Chaucer  was  a  man  who  had  seen  much 
and  read  much,  and  he  had  a  great  knowledge  of 
humanity  and  a  great  sympathy ;  nowhere,  when  he 
sat  down  to  garner  his  impressions,  could  he  find  a 
better  setting  for  his  studies  of  human  nature  and 
human  life  than  in  an  English  April  among  the  crowds 
that  journeyed  to  the  shrine  of  S.  Thomas  : 

"  And  specially  from  every  schircs  ende 
Of  Eni^elond,  to  Caunterbury  they  wende, 
The  holy  bhsful  martir  for  to  seeke 
That  them  hath  holpen  whan  that  they  were  sicke." 

Indeed  it  would  hardly  be  an  exaggeration  to  say  that 
for  four  centuries  English  life  in  its  picturesque  and  its 
religious  aspects  centred  round  the  memory  of  the 
great  Englishman  who  laid  down  his  life  in  the 
cathedral  of  Canterbury  on  December  29,  1170. 

Why  was  this  ?  A.  brief  sketch  of  his  life  must  be 
the  first  part  of  our  answer. 

Thomas  Becket  was  born  in  1118.  His  father, 
Gilbert  Becket,  was  sheriff  of  London.  He  had  come 
over  from  Rouen  with  other  Normans  after  the  Con- 
quest, married  a  damsel  of  "  burgher  birth  "  from  Caen, 
and  risen  to  prosperity  as  a  merchant.  Thomas  was  a 
bright  child,  of  whose  boyhood  many  stories  were  told 
— a  child  whom  many  people  noticed,  and  whom  his 
good  mother  trained  from  his  earliest  years  "  to  fear  the 
Lord  and  to  invoke  the  Blessed  Virgin  as  the  guide  of 
his  paths  and  the  patroness  of  his  life  and  to  lay  his 


The  Statesmen  Saints  243 

trust,  after  Christ,  upon  her."^  He  was  taught  at  the 
priory  of  Merton  in  Surrey  ;  then  he  worked  in  an 
office  in  London  ;-  then,  through  friends  of  his  father's, 
he  won  admission  to  the  school — very  Hke  the  theo- 
logical colleges  that  some  of  our  bishops  have  attached 
to  their  houses  to-day — of  Archbishop  Theobald  at 
Canterbury.  There  he  delighted  the  good  archbishop, 
and  when  he  was  only  in  deacon's  orders  he  rose  to 
high  preferment.  He  studied,  too,  at  Bologna  and 
Auxerre.  Theobald  had  much  to  do  with  the  peace- 
able accession  of  Henry  U.  in  1154,  and  the  new  king 
made  Becket  his  chancellor. 

How  great  a  position  this  was  a  contemporary 
tells  us : 

"  The  chancellor  of  England  has  so  high  a  dignity 
that  he  is  accounted  second  from  the  king  in  the 
realm ;  he  has  the  charge  of  the  king's  seal  and  seals 
his  o^^■n  orders  with  the  obverse  thereof;  the  king's 
chapel  is  in  his  charge  and  care ;  he  takes  into  his 
keeping  all  vacant  archbishoprics,  bishoprics,  abbeys, 
and  baronies  that  fall  into  the  king's  hands  ;  he  attends 
all  the  king's  councils,  and  may  enter  even  if  not 
summoned ;  everything  is  signed  by  his  clerk,  who 
bears  the  king's  seal  ;  and  everything  ordered  by  the 
advice  of  the  chancellor ;  so  that  if  by  God's  grace 
his  well-spent  Hfe  should  procure  it  for  him,  he  shall 
not  die  save  as  archbishop  or  bishop,  if  so  he  please. 

1  John  of  Salisbury  {Materials  for  (he  history  of  Archbishop 
Becket^  Rolls  Series,  ii.  303). 

-  As  to  this  see  Round,  The  Commune  of  London^  p.  1 14,  who 
seems  to  follow  a  hint  of  Mr.  Freeman's  in  his  articles  in  the  CoJi- 
temporary  Rcvieiu. 

16 — 2 


244 


The  Engt,ish  Saints 


And  thus  it  is  that  the  chancellorship  is  not  to  be 
bought."^ 

And  Thomas's  greatness  was  due  not  only  to  his 
high  office,  but  to  the  closeness  of  his  personal  relations 
with  the  king.  Two  bright,  active,  keen-sighted  men, 
impatient  to  do  what  they  thought  should  be  done, 
they  both  came  to  look  on  their  work  with  the  same 
eyes,  and  to  do  it  together  with  one  heart.  And  as 
they  worked  they  played. 

**  When  work  was  over,"  says  the  same  observer, 
"  the  king  and  he  would  play  together  like  boys  of  the 
same  age ;  in  hall,  in  church,  they  sat  together,  or 
together  they  rode  out.  One  day  they  were  riding 
together  in  the  streets  of  London ;  the  winter  was 
severe  :  the  king  saw  an  old  man  coming,  poor,  in 
thin  and  ragged  garb,  and  he  said  to  the  chancellor, 
*  Do  you  see  him  ?'  '  I  see,'  said  the  chancellor.  The 
king  :  '  How  poor  he  is,  how  feeble,  how  scantily  clad. 
Would  it  not  be  great  charity  to  give  him  a  thick  warm 
cloak  ?'  The  chancellor  :  '  Great  indeed  ;  and,  my 
king,  you  ought  to  have  a  mind  and  an  eye  to  it.' 
Meanwhile  the  poor  man  came  up ;  the  king  stopped 
and  the  chancellor  with  him.  The  king  pleasantly 
accosted  him  and  asked  if  he  would  have  a  good  cloak. 
The  poor  man,  who  knew  them  not,  thought  that  this 
was  a  jest,  not  earnest.  The  king  to  the  chancellor  : 
'  You  shall  do  this  great  charity,'  and  laying  hands  on 
his  hood  he  tried  to  pull  off  the  cape — a  new  and  very 
good  one  of  scarlet  and  grey — which  the  chancellor 
wore,  and  which  he  strove  to  retain.  Then  was  there 
great  commotion  and  noise,  and  the  knights  and  nobles 
'  W.  Fitzstephen  {Materials,  iii.  41J. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  245 

in  their  train  hurried  up  wondering  what  might  be  the 
cause  of  so  sudden  a  strife  ;  no  one  could  tell :  both 
were  engaged  with  their  hands,  and  more  than  once 
seemed  likely  to  fall  off  their  horses.  At  last  the 
chancellor,  long  reluctant,  allowed  the  king  to  win, 
to  pull  off  his  cape  and  give  it  to  the  poor  man.  Then 
first  the  king  told  the  story  to  his  attendants  ;  great 
was  the  laughter  of  all  ;  some  offered  their  capes  and 
cloaks  to  the  chancellor.  And  the  poor  old  man 
went  off  with  the  chancellor's  cape,  unexpectedly 
happy,  and  rich  beyond  expectations,  and  giving  thanks 
to  God. 

"  Sometimes  the  king  would  come  to  the  chancellor's 
house,  sometimes  for  fun,  sometimes  for  the  sake  of 
seeing  whether  the  talk  of  his  house  and  his  table  were 
true.  Sometimes  the  king  rode  on  horseback  into  the 
hall  where  the  chancellor  sat  at  meat ;  sometimes,  bow 
in  hand,  returning  from  hunting  or  on  his  way  to  the 
chase  ;  sometimes  he  would  drink  and  depart  when  he 
had  seen  the  chancellor.  Sometimes  jumping  over  the 
table  he  would  sit  down  and  eat  with  him.  Never  in 
Christian  times  were  there  two  men  more  of  one  mind 
or  better  friends."^ 

The  chroniclers  dwell  on  the  lavish  magnificence  of 
his  household,  the  train  of  knights  and  pages  who 
followed  him  and  fed  at  his  table,  the  grandeur  of  his 
equipage  when  he  went  on  embassy  to  the  king  of 
the  Franks.  The  people,  they  say,  rushed  from  their 
houses  to  see  the  train,  and  cried,  "  Marvellous  is 
the  king  of  the  English  whose  chancellor  goeth  thus 
and  so  grandly."  But  in  all  this  those  who  knew  him 
1  \V.  Fitzstephen  {Materials^  iii.  22). 


246  Thic  Enclish  Saints 

noted  also  the  simplicity  of  his  personal  life.  The 
Icelandic  "  vSaga,"  embod3'ing  an  English  chronicle, 
speaks  of  his  manner  of  life  thus  : 

"The  holy  fathers  have  made  plain  that  a  chaste 
monk  is  like  unto  a  knight  who  keepeth  his  wealth  and 
life  in  a  close  stronghold.  But  he  who  liveth  chastely 
in  the  world  signifieth  a  knight  who  fighteth  with 
sword  and  shield  in  open  field  and  receiveth  a  greater 
reward  the  more  glorious  victory  he  gaineth ;  for  that 
indeed  is  a  more  wondrous  art  to  stand  on  the  embers 
being  unburnt  than  to  shun  the  fire  and  be  unscathed. 
Both  these  signs  point  to  that  laudable  man  the  blessed 
Thomas.  He  was  placed  by  the  lord  king  in  the  wa}' 
of  such  a  good  hap  and  fulness  of  this  world's  bliss  as 
hath  been  before  told,  and  yet  he  wore  over  his  breast 
nevertheless  such  a  trusty  hauberk  of  virtue  through 
God's  abiding  with  him  that  he  never  departed  from  a 
life  of  purity  and  hoh'  endeavour ;  for  if  in  the  daytime 
the  fulfilment  of  many  duties  hindered  he  would  get  up 
anight-tide  to  worship  his  Creator."^ 

Such  is  the  life  which  the  chroniclers  describe,  there 
can  be  little  doubt,  from  tales  dropped  in  later  years 
from  Becket's  own  lips.-     It  went  on  happily  enough 

'  Saga  (ed.  Magnusson,  Rolls  Series),  i.  50. 

-  Our  information  for  the  earlier  years  of  Becket's  life  is  derived 
principally  from  William  P'itzstephen,  "  the  fellow-citizen  of  my 
lord,  his  chaplain,  and  of  his  household,  called  by  his  mouth  to  be 
a  sharer  of  his  cares,"  from  John  of  Salisbury  (who  quotes  his  own 
words),  and  the  anonymous  writer  whom  Mr.  Freeman,  in  his 
articles  in  the  Cojiteniporary  Review^  1878,  identified  with  Roger, 
a  monk  of  Pontigny,  in  which  house  Becket  dwelt  in  exile.  Dr. 
Abbott,  S.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  his  death  and  miracles,  1898,  and 
Miss  Norgate(/^/V/.  Nat.  Biog.,  vol.  hi.)  both  consider  that  there  is 
not  sufficient  evidencx-  for  this  identification  ;  but  in  any  case  it  is 


The  Statesmen  Saints  247 

for  nearly  eight  years.  Then  Theobald  died,  and 
Henry  made  his  friend  archbishop.  It  was  natural, 
inevitable,  and  yet,  as  with  Hildebrand  a  century 
earlier,  the  result  was  foreseen.^  Becket,  it  was  clear 
enough,  was  a  man  of  conscience  fixed  and  firm.  From 
the  moment  of  his  ordination  to  the  priesthood,  June  2, 
1 162,  he  had  to  choose — so  he  felt — between  God  and 
the  king.  It  was  not  that  his  life  as  chancellor  seemed 
to  him  to  have  been  sinful.  It  was  rather  that  his 
work  then  was  the  work  of  a  statesman.  He  had 
aided  Henry  in  all  those  great  reforms  that  made  the 
first  years  of  his  reign  a  turning-point  in  English 
history.  But  from  his  consecration  he  was  supremely 
responsible  for  the  fate  and  future  of  the  English 
Church,  and  with  the  Church  it  was  impossible  to 
doubt  that  Henry  II.,  like  other  kings  before  him 
since  feudalism  had  sway,  would  come  into  open 
conflict. 

The  contest  came  soon,  and  it  was  long  and  bitter. 
Its  issues,  however,  can  in  our  day  be  quickly  dis- 
cerned and  clearly  summed  up. 

The  first  occasion  of  contention  between  the  two 
friends,  king  and  archbishop,  was  a  question  of  certain 
dues  which  Henry  wished  to  have  paid  in  a  certain  way 
which  Thomas  said  would  be  unjust.^  The  friends 
quarrelled.     Then  came  what  seemed  to  be  a  question 

clear  that  the  writer  had  practically  first-hand  evidence  for  the 
personal  life  of  his  hero. 

^  Cf.  Herbert  of  Bosham  {Materials,  iii.  180)  with  Bonitho,  Liber 
ad  cwiicwn,  in  Jafife,  Monumenta  Gregoria?ia^  p.  657. 

2  See  Grim  {Materials,  ii.  374).  A  brief  note  on  the"  subject  in 
.S*.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  W.  H.  Hutton,  second  edition,  pp.  38-39  ; 
but  cf.  J.  H.  Round,  Feudal  Engla}id,  pp.  497-502. 


248  Thi:  Enc.lish  Saixts 

of  religious  principle.  Henry  declared  that  there  were 
a  number  of  clerical  offenders  who  escaped  with  only 
light  punishment — strictly  speaking",  who,  being  clergy- 
men and  claimed  by  the  Church  courts,  could  not  lose 
life  or  limb  as  laymen  did,  though  they  could  be 
imprisoned  for  life.  The  Constitutions  of  Clarendon, 
1164,  drawn  up  by  the  king's  clerks,  asserted  this  view. 
Becket,  and  the  clergy  who  were  of  his  mind — and  the 
Pope  was  with  them — refused  to  assent  to  this  claim. 
The  question  was  simply  this :  Should  the  Church  or 
the  State  have  the  final  judgment  of  clergy  who  had 
broken  the  law  ?  Should  the\'  be  summoned  before 
the  lay  courts,  there  charged  with  the  crime,  then 
judged,  if  the  bishop  claimed  them,  in  the  Church 
court,  and  then  sent  back  to  the  lay  court  to  receive 
a  civil  punishment  besides  the  ecclesiastical  one  which 
the  Church  court  might  ha\'e  thought  lit  to  inflict  ? 
This  was  what  Henry  claimed.^ 

'  This  statement  of  Henry's  claim  is  based  on  the  article  of  Pro- 
fessor Maitland,  Eitglish  Historical  Revieiv^  April  1892.  which  on 
the  whole  seems  more  fully  to  meet  the  difficulties  of  the  question 
which  the  language  of  the  chroniclers  raises  than  the  older  ex- 
planations. Dr.  Maitland  reprinted  the  article  in  his  (1898)  Roiitan 
Canon  Law  in  the  Church  of  Englajtd,  pp.  132-147.  Becket  and 
his  friends  unquestionably  considered  the  constitutions  to  be  in  their 
main  aspects  new  ;  and  this  appears  to  have  been  the  opinion  of 
Henry's  mother,  Matilda,  though  she  was  "of  the  race  of  the 
tyrants"  (see  Materials,  v.  145  sqq.).  Clause  i,  for  example,  was 
certainly  new.  It  is  always  difficult  to  argue  from  custom.  The 
king  had  done  such  and  such  things  when  he  had  power  to  do  so  : 
the  "  customs  "  of  William  Rufus  went  very  far  indeed.  But  custom, 
in  the  sense  of  law,  did  not  cover  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon. 
On  the  other  hand  Professor  Collins  (note,  pp.  35-36)  thinks  that 
"  The  case,  as  it  has  been  said,  really  goes  by  default.  '  Henry  did 
assert  repeatedly  and  emphatically,  with   the  concurrence  of  his 


The  Statesmen  Saints  249 

Becket,  on  the  other  hand,  declared  that  this  would 
be  giving  two  punishments  for  the  same  offence,  con- 
trary to  the  elementary  principles  of  justice.  Not  less 
strongly  did  he  assert  that  the  Church  had  the  privilege 
of  exclusively  judging  all  clerical  offenders. 

That  was  the  question  between  them  :  the  king  on 
one  side  with  many  bishops  and  barons  at  his  back  ; 
Becket  on  the  other  with  the  great  majority  of  the 
clergy  and  people  of  his  mind.  What  is  the  meaning 
of  it  to  us  now  ?  Bossuet,  two  centuries  ago,  com- 
pressed its  significance  thus :  "  The  discipline  of  the 
Church  as  well  as  her  faith  must  have  its  martyrs." 
The  claim  was  really  that  each  separate  estate  of  the 
realm  should  have  its  own  laws,  its  own  rights,  its  own 
judges,  its  own  punishments.  It  was  a  claim  that  could 
not  possibly  be  upheld  in  face  of  a  united  nation,  a 
united  state.  But  then,  when  law  and  custom  and  the 
routine  of  public  business  were  but  very  slight  checks 
on    a    strong,    despotic,    arbitrary    king,  the    hope    for 


barons  and  with  the  approval  of  many  Ijishops,  that  he  was  but 
restoring  the  old  customs.  Becket  and  his  friends,  so  far  as  we 
can  see,  would  not  meet  this  allegation.  When  one  of  the  martyr's 
biographers  reminds  us  that  Christ  said,  not  "  I  am  the  custom  " 
but  "  I  am  the  Truth,"  we  cannot  but  infer  that  on  the  question  of 
fact  Henry  was  substantially  in  the  right'  (Pollock  and  Maitland, 
History  of  English  Law,  Cambridge,  1895,  vol.  i.,  p.  432).  Becket 
and  his  friends,  of  course,  met  the  king's  statement  with  a  de- 
murrer :  they  would  keep  the  customs  so  far  as  they  were  not  at 
\ariance  with  an  (assumed)  higher  law  :  '  saving  their  order.' '' 
The  argument  seems  to  me  to  be  hardly  conclusive.  Becket 
indubitably  said  that  if  a  custom  were  wrong  it  ought  not  to  be 
obeyed  because  it  w  as  a  custom  :  but  the  argument  of  his  friends 
throughout  seems  to  imply-that  the  "customs"  were  at  least  highly 
coloured  by  Richard  de  Lucy  and  Jocelin  de  Balliol. 


250  The  English  Saints 

English  liberty  was  thought  by  most  Englishmen  to 
lie  in  the  assertion  of  the  rights  of  each  class  as  against 
the  Crown.  But  there  was  more  that  won  Becket 
support.  There  was  a  revolt  of  public  feeling  against 
the  barbarous  punishments  that  the  Norman  kings  had 
brought  in.  There  was  a  reverence,  approaching  super- 
stition, for  Holy  Orders,  for  the  Sanctuary  of  the 
Church,  for  the  rights  that  the  Redeemer  might  have 
claimed  for  His  servants  on  earth. 

Becket  was  in  danger  of  his  life.  He  had  to  fly  to 
foreign  lands,  and  he  was  a  wanderer  for  six  3'ears. 
Henry  damaged  his  position  by  cruelt>-,  intrigue  and 
malice.  The  Pope  was  in  great  political  danger,  and 
pitiably  turned  from  one  party  to  the  other,  only  to 
meet  the  sarcasms  of  both.  Gradually  Becket's  seclu- 
sion became  like  the  court  of  an  exiled  king.  His 
vehemence  seemed  only  to  win  him  more  friends. 
Henry's  firmness  seemed  only  to  lead  him  to  perpetual 
blunders.  The  conscience  of  Europe,  in  some  strange 
way,  came  clearly  to  the  archbishop's  side. 

At  last  Henry  infringed  on  the  ancient  custom  by 
having  his  young  son  crowned  by  the  Archbishop  of 
York  ;  and  on  that  point  Becket's  constitutional  position 
was  unassailable.  The  Pope  at  the  same  time  pro- 
nounced decidedly  against  the  king.  It  was  clear  that 
he  would  be  put  out  of  communion.  He  yielded.  The 
old  friends  met,  and  they  seemed  to  be  at  peace  again. 

Relying  on  Henry's  safe- conduct,  Becket  went  back 
to  his  diocese.  The  account  of  his  home-coming,  in 
the  words  of  two  of  his  friends,  is  among  the  most 
touching  passages  in  the  old  histories.  He  landed  on 
December  i,  11 70. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  251 

"  It  became  known  at  Canterbury,"  says  Fitzstephen/ 
"  that  the  archbishop  had  landed.  Then  all  in  the 
town  rejoiced  from  the  least  to  the  greatest.  They 
decked  the  Cathedral.  They  put  on  silks  and  costly 
array.  They  prepared  a  great  banquet  for  many 
people.  The  archbishop  was  received  in  solemn  pro- 
cession. The  church  resounded  with  hymns  and  music, 
the  hall  with  rejoicing,  the  city  everywhere  with  fulness 
of  joy.  He  preached  a  most  instructive  sermon,  taking 
for  text,  '  Here  we  have  no  continuing  city,  but  we 
seek  one  to  come.'  ""- 

Herbert  of  Bosham  tells  the  tale  more  fully  : 
"  On  the  morrow  the  archbishop  left  the  harbour 
where  he  had  landed,  which  was  distant  about  six  miles 
from  Canterbury.  As  he  approached  the  city  he  was 
awaited  by  the  poor  of  the  land  as  a  victim  sent  from 
heaven,  yea  even  as  the  angel  of  God,  with  prayer  and 
ovation.  But  why  do  I  say  with  ovation  ?  Rather 
Christ's  poor  received  him  as  the  Lord's  anointed.  So, 
wherever  the  archbishop  passed,  crowds  of  poor,  small 
and  great,  old  and  young,  ran  together,  some  throwing 
themselves  in  his  way,  others  taking  their  garments  and 
strawing  them  in  the  way,  crying  and  exclaiming 
'  Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.' 
Likewise  the  priests  with  their  parishioners,  met  him 
in  procession  with  their  crosses,  saluting  their  father, 
and  begging  his  blessing,  reiterated  that  oft- repeated 
cry,  '  Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord.'  But  wherefore  thus  ?  You  would  have  said, 
had  you  seen,  that  the  Lord  a  second  time  approached 

^"^ Materials,  iii.  1 19. 
-'  Heb.  xiii.  14. 


252  The  English  Saints 

His  Passion,  and  that  among  the  children  and  the  poor 
and  the  rejoicinjif  people  again  He  who  died  once  at 
Jerusalem  for  the  sahation  of  the  whole  \\orld  was  now 
again  ready  to  die  at  Canterbury  for  the  English  Church. 
And  though  the  way  was  short  yet  among  the  thronging 
and  pressing  crowds  scarce  in  that  day  could  he  reach 
Canterbury,  where  he  was  received  with  the  sound  of 
trumpets,  with  psalms  and  h^mns  and  spiritual  songs 
by  the  poor  of  Christ,  His  children,  and  by  his  holy 
monastery  with  the  reverence  and  veneration  due  to 
their  father.  Then  might  you  see  at  his  first  coming 
into  the  cathedral  the  face  of  this  man,  ^\•hich  many 
seeing  marked  and  wondered  at,  for  it  seemed  as  though 
his  heart  aflame  showed  also  in  his  face.  .  .  .  And 
the  disciple  who  wrote  these  things  when  he  observed 
these  things,  and  observed  with  wonder,  recalled  to 
mind  what  is  told  of  Moses.  .  .  .  Then  the  archbishop 
standing  on  his  episcopal  throne  received  to  the  kiss  of 
peace  each  brother,  one  by  one,  with  many  sighs  and 
tears  from  all.  And  as  he  stood  there  stood  by  him  the 
disciple  who  wrote  these  things,  and  said  '  My  lord, 
it  matters  not  now  when  you  depart  hence,  since 
to-day  in  you  Christ's  Bride  has  conquered ;  yea, 
Christ  conquers,  Christ  reigns,  Christ  rules.'  And  he 
looked  upon  him  that  said  these  things,  yet  said  he 
nothing. 

"  And  when  all  things  in  the  cathedral  were  solemnly 
ended,  the  archbishop  went  to  his  palace,  thus  having 
finished  that  jo3^ful  and  solemn  day."^ 

This  joy,  so  genuine  an  expression  of  the  feelings  of 
the  English  folk,  was  not  long  to  last.  The  archbishop, 
1  Materials^  iii.  478. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  253 

with  strict  legal  justification/  refused,  unless  they  "  gave 
satisfaction,"  to  absolve  the  bishops  whom  he  had, 
with  perhaps  as  much  personal  eagerness  as  zeal  for 
Church  discipline,  excommunicated.  They  laid  their 
complaints  before  the  king.  Roger  of  Pont  TEveque, 
archbishop  of  York,  the  lifelong  foe  of  Becket,  told 
Henry  that  he  would  never  have  peace  as  long  as  the 
primate  was  alive, "^  and  according  to  one  authority'' 
even  urged  on  the  knights  who  set  out,  at  Henry's 
hasty  words  of  rage,  to  "  avenge  him  on  the  low  clerk." 
Supplied  with  money  by  Roger  of  York,  and  with  words 
of  his  put  into  their  mouths,  they  came  to  Canterbury. 
Becket  was  a  man  of  undaunted  courage,  and  he  would 
not  yield  an  inch  when  they  ordered  him  to  absolve 
the  bishops  and  leave  his  diocese.  The  first,  he  said, 
he  could  not,  the  second  he  would  not,  do.  He  knew, 
and  so  did  all  the  timid  monks  at  his  side,  that  his 
death  was  certain. 

The  last  scene  must  happen  in  his  own  cathedral 
church.  The  monks  when  he  came  to  vespers  would 
have  bolted  the  doors,  but  he  said,  "  It  is  not  meet  to 
make  a  fortress  of  the  House  of  God.  We  came  to 
suffer,  not  resist." 

We  have  the  words  of  three  at  least  who  were  present 
at  the  end.  Thus  wrote  Edward  Grim,  the  monk  who 
himself  tried  to  save  the  martyr  : 

"  Inspired  by  fury  the  knights  called  out,  '  Where  is 
Thomas  Becket,  traitor  to  the  king  and  realm  ?'     As 

^  See  Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  clause  v.,  and  compare  the 
practice  of  Roman  law  as  to  "  vadium  ad  remanens,"  Institutes^  ed. 
Moyle,  i.  670,  and  Poste's  Gaius,  lib.  iv.,  sect.  185. 

^  W.  Fitzstephen  {Materials,  iii.  127). 

^  Garnier  de  Pont  S.  Maxence,  ed.  Hippeau,  pp   174  sqq. 


254  The  English  Saints 

he  answered  not,  they  cried  out  the  more  furiously, 
*  Where  is  the  archbishop  ?'  At  this,  intrepid  and 
fearless,  as  it  is  written,  '  The  just,  like  a  bold  lion, 
shall  be  without  fear,'  he  descended  from  the  stair 
where  he  had  been  dragged  by  the  monks  in  fear  of  the 
knights,  and  in  a  clear  voice  answered,  '  I  am  here,  no 
traitor  to  the  king,  but  a  priest.  Wh}'  do  ye  seek  me  ?' 
And  whereas  he  had  already  said  that  he  feared  them 
not,  he  added,  '  So  I  am  ready  to  suffer  in  His  name 
Who  redeemed  me  by  His  Blood:  be  it  far  from  me 
to  flee  from  your  swords,  or  to  depart  from  justice.' 
Having  thus  said,  he  turned  to  the  right,  under  a 
pillar,  having  on  one  side  the  altar  of  the  blessed 
Mother  of  God  and  ever  Virgin  Mar}-,  on  the  other 
that  of  S.  Benedict  the  Confessor  :  by  whose  example 
and  prayers,  having  crucified  the  world  with  its  lusts, 
he  bore  all  that  the  murderers  could  do  with  such 
constancy  of  soul  as  if  he  had  been  no  longer  in  the 
flesh.  The  murderers  followed  him  ;  '  Absolve,'  they 
cried,  '  and  restore  to  communion  those  whom  you  have 
excommunicated,  and  restore  their  powers  to  those 
whom  you  have  suspended.'  He  answered  :  '  There 
has  been  no  satisfaction,  and  I  will  not  absolve  them.' 
'  Then  you  shall  die,'  they  cried,  '  and  receive  what  }ou 
deserve.'  '  I  am  ready,'  he  rephed,  '  to  die  for  my 
Lord,  that  in  my  blood  the  Church  may  obtain  liberty 
and  peace.  But  in  the  name  of  Almighty  God,  I  forbid 
you  to  hurt  my  people  whether  clerk  or  lay.'  .  .  .  Then 
the  unconquered  martyr,  seeing  the  hour  at  hand  which 
should  put  an  end  to  this  miserable  life  and  give  him 
straightway  the  crown  of  immortality  promised  by  the 
Lord,  inclined  his  neck  as  one  who  pravs,  and  joining 


The  Statesmen  Saints  255 

his  hands  he  hfted  them  up,  and  commended  his  cause 
and  that  of  the  Church  to  God,  to  S.  Mar}-,  and  to  the 
blessed  martyr  Denys.     Scarce  had  he  said  the  words 
than   the   wicked    knight    fearing   lest    he    should    be 
rescued  by  the  people  and  escape  alive,  leapt  upon  him 
suddenly  and  wounded  this  lamb  who  was  sacrificed  to 
God  on  the  head,  cutting   off  the  top   of  the  crown 
which  the  sacred  unction  of  the  chrism  had  dedicated 
to  God ;  and  by  the  same  blow  he  wounded  the  arm  of 
him  who  tells  this.     For  he,   when   the  others,   both 
monks  and  clerks,  fled,  stuck  close  to  the  sainted  arch- 
bishop and  held  him  in  his  arms  till  the  one  he  inter- 
posed was  almost  severed.  .  .  .     Then  he  received  a 
second  blow  on  the  head,  but  still  stood  firm.     At  the 
third  blow  he  fell  on  his  knees  and  elbows,  offering 
himself  a  living  victim,  and  saying  in  a  low  voice,  '  For 
the  Name  of  Jesus  and  the  protection  of  the  Church  I 
am  ready  to  embrace  death.'     Then  the  third  knight 
inflicted  a  terrible  wound  as  he  lay,  by  which  the  sword 
was  broken  against  the  pavement,  and  the  crown,  which 
was  large,  was  separated  from  the  head ;  so  that  the 
blood  white  with   the    brain    and  the    brain    red  with 
blood,  dyed  the  surface  of  the  virgin  mother  Church 
with  the  life  and  death  of  the  confessor  and  martyr  in 
the  colours  of  the  lily  and  the  rose.     The  fourth  knight 
prevented  any  from  interfering  so  that  the  others  might 
freely  perpetrate  the  murder.     As  to  the  fifth,  no  knight, 
but  that  clerk  who  had  entered  with  the  knights,  that  a 
fifth  blow  might  not  be  wanting  to  the  martyr  who  was 
in  other  things  like  to  Christ,  put  his  foot  on  the  neck 
of  the  holy  priest  and  precious  martyr,  and,  horrible  to 
say,  scattered  his  brains  and  blood  over  the  pavement, 


256  Thp:  English  Saints 

calling  out  to  the  others,  '  Let  us  awa\-,  knights  ;  he 
will  rise  no  more."  "' 

It  is  impossible  to  doubt  the  feehng  which  speaks  in 
those  words.  It  was  the  feehng  which  made  all  Europe 
horror-stricken  at  the  deed,  which  raised  the  shrine  and 
gathered  the  miracles  that  made  S.  Thomas  the  most 
famous  of  English  saints.  Truly,  on  Englishman  of  the 
Middle  Age  made  so  profound  an  impression  on  his 
countrymen  as  did  Thomas  of  Canterbury.  "  Second 
after  the  King  in  four  realms "  he  was  often  styled, 
when  he  was  at  the  zenith  of  his  power  :  first  among 
the  saints  after  the  Blessed  Virgin  he  was  held  for 
nearly  four  centuries  after  his  death.  And  the 
cause  was  more  than  sentiment  or  enthusiasm  or 
the  morbid  interest  of  so  tragic  a  death. 

The  popular  admiration  w'hich  had  followed  the 
saint  in  his  life,  because  he  withstood  to  their  faces, 
again  and  again,  king  and  Pope  and  barons  and  bishops, 
clung  to  him  after  death  because  of  the  abiding  national 
sense  that  he  had  been  an  heroic  champion  in  a  great 
national    struggle.^     It   was   not   the   attraction    of    a 

1  Materials,  ii.  431  sqq. 

-  And  here  may  be  noted  the  great  merit  of  Miss  Norgate's 
nairatixc  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography.  Here  and 
there  her  research  has  revealed  a  new  fact,  or  supplied  a  new 
inference,  for  the  history  of  Beckel.  But  most  of  all  the  \  aiue  of 
her  work  lies  in  the  fact  that,  though  hampered  by  the  stem 
editorial  restriction  as  to  style  (this  was  described  by  the  Master 
of  the  Temple  at  a  gathering  of  the  contributors  as  "  no  flowers,  by 
request"),  and  confined  to  the  jejune  allotment  of  space  which  the 
garrulousness  of  some  of  the  earlier  contributors  has  rendered 
necessary  for  the  later  volumes,  she  has  with  masterly  precision 
and  lucidity  made  the  tale  speak  for  itself  and  show  the  martyr  for 
the  hero  that  he  was. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  257 

peculiarly  Roman  type  of  sanctity,  or  the  character  of 
a  devoted  son  of  the  Papacy  that  made  Becket  famous. 
It  was  the  thoroughly  English  determination  of  his  life, 
the  steadfast  appeal  for  justice  against  despotism.  It 
was  the  struggle  of  a  statesman  who  saw  the  danger  of 
all  power  being  absorbed  by  the  centralized  state.  It 
was  the  struggle  of  the  priest  who  knew  that  while  the 
statesman's  work  was  noble,  there  was  a  higher  claim 
in  the  Church  and  the  souls  of  men.  Becket  never 
ceased  to  be  a  statesman ;  but  in  his  later  years  he 
became  inspired,  before  all  things,  with  the  passion  of 
the  priest.  A  spiritual  society,  a  body  which  asserts 
for  itself  the  care  of  man's  spiritual  nature,  must  have 
spiritual  rules — laws  for  its  own  members.  If  these 
conflict  with  other  rules,  then  the  members  of  the 
spiritual  society  must  be  ready  to  suffer  for  the  faith 
they  believe  and  the  rules  they  obey.  For  the  Church, 
like  every  other  society,  though  nowadays  we  seem  in 
danger  of  forgetting  it,  has  rights — rights  which  those 
who  beheve  in  Jesus  Christ  and  His  Commission  must 
be  prepared  to  defend  and,  if  need  be,  to  die  for. 
S.  Thomas  said  again  and  again  that  he  would  do  such 
or  such  an  act  "  saving  his  order."  It  is  a  proviso  that 
must  be  always  necessary.  Priests  can  only  act  in  the 
ordinary  affairs  of  life  with  the  understanding  that  they 
must  be  loyal  before  all  things  to  the  law  to  which  they 
are  bound.  Lay  folk  similarly  must  do  their  work  in 
the  world  in  the  light  of  the  revelation  that  they  are 
citizens  also  of  a  Heavenly  City,  whose  rules  above  all 
things  they  must  obey. 

This  is  the  supreme  lesson  of  the  life  of  the  great 
English   saint.     This  it   is  which   is  unfolded  in  page 

17 


258  The  English  Saints 

after  page  of  that  remarkable  series  of  letters  which 
was  copied  and  handed  about  all  through  the  middle 
ages,  a  collection  than  which  there  is  none  other  so  full 
and  so  intimate  in  medieval  history  save,  perhaps,  that 
of  S.  Bernard.  This  it  is  which  made  natural  the 
promptness  with  which  Henry  VIII.,  when  he  had  em- 
barked on  a  campaign  against  individual  liberty,  recog- 
nized the  bygone  saint  as  a  deadly  foe.  In  August, 
1538,  fourteen  years  after  Erasmus  had  seen  the  wonders 
of  the  shrine,  Thomas  Cromwell  directed  its  destruction. 
The  bones,  which  had  rested  in  an  iron  chest  since  the 
translation  by  Stephen  Langton  in  1220,  were  "  then 
and  there  brent. "^  It  was  a  fit  expression  of  the  triumph 
of  the  Tudor  despotism. 

^  The  fate  of  the  bones  has  been  the  subject  of  a  keen  contro- 
versy which  can  hardly  be  said  yet  to  be  ended.  I  believe  that  an 
opinion  is  still  held  at  Canterbury  that  the  bones  found  in  1888 
were  those  of  S.  Thomas.  But  to  my  mind  the  evidence  of  Stowe 
{Annals,  Sept.  1538)  and  of  the  Consistorial  Acts  {cf.  Annales 
Eccles.  C07it.  Baronii,  tom.  xiii.,  494)  is  sufficient ;  cf.  Letters,  etc., 
Henry  VIIL,  vol.  xiii.,  pt.  2,  p.  49.  And  Miss  Norgate  takes  this 
view.  The  comment  of  Archbishop  Benson  on  the  unholy  diggings 
which  have  delighted  the  chapter  of  Canterbury  (as  those  also  of 
Winchester  and  Durham)  is  not  to  be  forgotten.  "  Last  Saturday 
my  Dean  and  Chapter  made  a  conspiracy  and  broke  burglariously 
into  a  tomb  and  sacrilegiously  plundered  it.  They  had  before  their 
scholarly  eyes  the  determination  of  so  important  a  question  as 
whether  Stephen  Langton  or  Hubert  Walter  or  nobody  was  buried 
in  it.  And  having  found  the  most  beautiful  things  which  have  yet 
been  found  in  a  tomb,  they  know  no  more  than  they  did,  and  have 
put  the  things  in  their  museum.  To  his  sons  and  brothers  in  the 
most  sacred  part  of  the  Church  the  Archbishop  commended  himself 
for  ever  and  had  laid  with  him  the  loveliest  symbols  of  his  earthly 
work.  They,  breaking  all  honour,  reverence  and  grace,  plunder 
him.  They  wonder  people  are  bent  on  breaking  up  cathedrals, 
and  think  little  of  their  worship.  The  people  see  little  of  the  Spirit 
'they  are  of.'"     Life  of  Ahp,  r>enso7i,  ii.  301-2  (March  14,  1890). 


The  Statesmen  Saints  259 

It  was  as  a  gallant  fight  for  liberty  that  Englishmen 
cherished  the  memory  of  Becket's  career.  And  beyond 
all  the  causes  of  his  fame  that  we  can  coldly  estimate 
is  the  unquestionable  heroism  and  picturesqueness  of 
his  life.  It  is  a  tale  of  passion,  determination,  courage 
to  the  death,  that  stirs  the  blood  as  we  read  it  now ; 
and  there  are  few  scenes  in  English  history  so  rich  in 
tragic  fascination  as  that  of  the  twilight  hour  in  Canter- 
bury Cathedral  when  the  tall  strong  priest  gave  himself 
to  death  for  what  he  believed  to  be  the  call  of  duty  and 
the  voice  of  God. 

Of  the  influence  of  this  life  and  death  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  It  is  implied  in  the  popularity  of  the  cult  which 
centred  round  S.  Thomas's  tomb.  He  was  a  bold  de- 
termined man  who  put  his  conception  of  duty  before 
everything  else.  And  that  was  a  characteristic  which 
the  veneration  of  his  name  tended  to  stamp  with  im- 
pressive force  on  the  character  of  the  English  people. 

In  this  lies  the  essence  of  the  contrast  between 
S.  Anselm  and  S.  Thomas.  Anselm,  so  far  as  we  can 
judge,  won  no  wide  popularity.^  Only  a  few  monks 
remembered  him,  and  an  enthusiastic  friend  preserved 
his  fame.  Only  those  who  thought  deeply  over  the 
questions  in  debate,  or  who  could  see  the  ultimate 
issues  of  the  strife,  saw  that  there  was  deep  significance 
in  the  struggle  in  which  Anselm  was  the  victor.  Anselm 
himself  seemed  to  ordinary  folk  to  be  merely  a  good 
man  contending  about  trifles  with  the  foolish  pertinacity 
of  good  men.     His  books,  theological  and  philosophical, 

1  Cf.  the  excellent  summary  of  S.  Anselm's  career  and  of  the 
contrast  between  his  character  and  the  common  English  ideal  in 
J.  M.  Rigg,  S.  Anselm  of  Canterbury,  pp.  263-4. 

17—2       . 


26o  The  English  Saints 

were  known  to  few  ;  his  character  was  one,  men  would 
say,  of  mere  goodness,  and  mere  goodness  has  never 
appealed  to  the  world  at  large.  He  had  no  followers 
and  no  imitators.  He  passed  to  his  rest,  and  was  for- 
gotten for  centuries. 

The  fame  of  Thomas  was  very  different.  If  scholars 
doubted^  and  ecclesiastical  statesmen  considered  his 
action  folly,"'  the  English  people,  and  the  judgment  of 
foreign  nations,  accepted  him  from  the  first  as  a  hero 
and  a  saint.  Men  saw  clearly  what  he  was  fighting  for. 
If  it  w^as  the  cause  of  the  Church,  it  appeared  also 
to  be  the  cause  of  the  poor,  of  widows  and  orphans.^ 
The  dragging  of  clerks  before  secular  tribunals,  the 
hearing  of  cases  in  which  the  cure  of  souls  was  in- 
volved, the  abandoning  of  Church  protection  over  the 
helpless,  these  were  visible  tangible  wrongs  which 
appealed  to  plain  men.  Becket's  death  was  felt  by  all 
Europe  to  be  a  martyrdom.  While  men  forgot  Anselm, 
miracles  and  romance  gathered  round  the  name  of 
S.  Thomas.  To  the  present  day  tales  of  him  linger  in 
many  parts  of  England  :^  and  a  romantic  story  of  his 

1  William  of  Newburgh,  Chrofi.,  etc.  (Rolls  Series)  i.  140-1  : 
Herbert  of  Bosham,  Materials,  iii.  273. 

-  Gamier  de  Pont.  S.  Maxence,  ed.  Hippeau,  p.  61. 

^  See  Freeman,  Historical  Essays,  ist  series,  p.  108-9.  It  is  quite 
certain  that  it  was  not  thought  that  he  was  fighting  to  secure 
immunity  for  clerical  offenders.  There  can  have  been  no  such 
number  of  criminous  clerks  as  has  been  asserted,  or  public  opinion 
would  certainly  not  have  been  on  Becket's  side. 

''  "Thomas  Becket  must  have  been  a  favourite  in  this  neighbour- 
hood (Warminster).  For  several  churches  have  traces  of  him — 
Mere,  e.g.,  with  an  altar,  and  probably  a  window  ;  Heytesbury, 
where  his  'episcopal  slipper'  (crepida)  was  in  1220  one  of  the 
relics  ;  Norton  Bavant,  inscription  on  a  bell. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  261 

birth  was  among  the  favourite  legends  of  the  later 
middle  age.^  But  his  fame  was  so  different  from  that  of 
many  medieval  saints  because  it  was  immediate.  There 
was  never  a  time  when  it  was   forgotten    or   revived. 

"  But  at  Longbridge  Deverill  there  are  still  oral  traditions 
repeated  about  him.  It  has  always  been  afifirmed  in  the  place  that 
he  consecrated  the  church,  and  that  there  was  truth  in  this  seemed 
likely,  because  there  is  another  tradition,  still  repeated,  that  he 
visited  the  village  'Revel'  (this  I  will  give  below).  But  the  diffi- 
culty, at  first  sight,  was  this.  The  church  is  spoken  of,  in 
Registrum  Osmundi,  as  'ecclesia  beati  Petri,'  about  1130-1135, 
that  is,  quite  30  years  or  more  before  its  supposed  dedication. 

"But  the  Registrum  also  proves  that  names  of  churches  were 
not  infrequently  given  before  dedication  ;  so  that  there  is  no  reason 
for  doubting  the  tradition,  which  has  been  handed  down  locally 
and  orally  only,  and  which,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  comes  from  no 
source  printed  or  published. 

"  The  second  tradition,  still  repeated  by  old  folk,  is,  that  Thomas 
Becket  '  went  to  the  Revel  dressed  like  a  gentleman,  and  left  it 
like  a  beggar  dressed  in  rags.'  '  He  came  through  Southleigh 
wood  '  [ — local  detail — quite  conceivable].  '  Why  did  he  go  away 
like  a  beggar  ?'  '  Oh,  I  suppose  because  he  had  spent  all  his 
money  there,  and  couldn't  go  back  fine.' 

"  Now  that  is  noticeable  for  another  reason.  This  'revel'  is  a 
'changed  feast,'  i.e.^  instead  of  being  held  on  S.  Peter's  Day,  it  is 
held  on  the  first  Sunday  after  the  Translation  of  the  Relics  of 
S.  Thomas  (the  day  of  the  Translation  is  July  7).  After  his 
body  was  translated  in  1220,  the  original  feast  was  changed  to 
July  7th,  exactly  as  was  done  at  Wymondham,  Norfolk  ;  and  his 
spiritual  presence  was  held  still  to  visit  and  cheer  the  social 
gathering."  [Note  from  my  colleague  Mr.  J.  U.  Powell.]  The  story 
of  the  change  of  clothes  is  probably  a  growth  from  that  told  by 
Fitzstephen. 

^  The  story  that  his  mother  was  a  Saracen  who  followed  his 
father,  a  Crusader,  home,  knowing  only  the  two  words  London  and 
Becket,  appears  in  the  Quadrilogus  and  is  told  in  the  Nova 
Legenda  Anglice  without  any  hint  of  romance  but  clumsily  dove- 
tailed into  the  authentic  history. 


262  The  English  Saints 

From  the  day  when  as  archbishop  he  first  stood  to 
defend  the  rights  of  the  Church  it  may  be  said  that  he 
was  a  hero  of  the  Enghsh  people.  And  from  that  day 
the  legends  began  to  spring  up  around  him.  The 
miracles  of  his  tomb  were  foreshadowed  by  the  miracles 
that  men  made,  while  he  was  still  living,  of  the  adven- 
tures of  his  boyhood.  He  had  fallen  into  a  mill-stream, 
and  happily  the  miller  stopped  the  wheel  just  in  time 
to  save  him  :^  before  long  men  told  that  the  wheel 
stopped  of  itself.  And  so  the  canonization  was  easy. 
It  was  the  spontaneous  tribute  of  a  whole  people,  which 
the  very  Pope  who  had  played  fast  and  loose  with  him 
while  he  lived  was  bound  to  recognize.  All  the  pre- 
liminaries were  hurried  over  :  the  testimonies  were  so 
sure,  the  martyrdom  was  so  unquestionable,  and  little 
more  than  two  years  after  his  murder  Alexander  III. 
commanded  the  Chapter  of  Canterbury  to  pray  "  that 
his  pious  intercession  for  the  whole  body  of  the  faithful, 
and  for  the  peace  of  the  Universal  Church,  may  be 
offered  up  unto  the  Lord."- 

With  Anselm  it  \\'as  very  different.  He  passed  to 
his  rest  with  more  love  than  honour.  S.  Thomas  him- 
self at    the    Council    of  Tours,    1162,  begged    for   his 

'  So  Gamier,  p.  9  : 

De  la  juste  la  plaunche  ont  un  niulin  mulaunt, 
De  grant  ravine  ala :  Tomes  i  \in  flotaunt, 
()uant  il  dut  en  la  roue  chair,  le  chef  avaunt, 
Li  muncrs  ont  mulu,  mit  rescloture  a  taunt, 
Si  guarist  Ueus  de  mort,  ii  cele  feiz,  I'enfaunt. 
'^  Materials,  vii.  545.    Mr.  Freeman,  Co7itemporary  Revietv^  J 878, 
p.  237,  well  wrote  :  "  No  wonder  if  Pope  Alexander,  calm,  crafty, 
politic,  with  his  own  objects  to  gain,  felt  the  living  saint  an  encum- 
brance, till  he  was,  so  ha])]jily  for  all  Alexander's  objects,  changed 
into  the  dead  martyr." 


The  Statesmen  Saints  263 

canonization  in  vain,  John  of  Salisbury  made  investi- 
gation as  to  the  miracles  claimed  for  him,  and  Alex- 
ander III.  went  so  far  as  to  commit  the  inquiry  to 
S.  Thomas  and  the  suffragans  of  his  province,  and  to 
promise  to  ratify  its  findings.^  The  troubles  of  the 
times  prevented  any  action.  Meanwhile  his  cultus 
spread  to  Italy  and  France  :  the  ancient  necrology  of 
the  priory  of  S.  Andrew  at  Turin  records  his  death  : 
and  at  Aosta  his  festival  took  rank  among  the  greatest 
of  those  celebrated  in  the  Cathedral  Church.  But  the 
canonization  was  long  in  progress.  In  August,  1452, 
Nicholas  Upton  and  Simon  Huchyns,  the  agents  of  the 
Chapter  of  Salisbury,  engaged  in  endeavouring  to  pro- 
cure the  canonization  of  S.  Osmund,  wrote  from  Rome 
to  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury  that  the  Archbishop  of 
Tarantum,  whose  aid  it  was  important  to  secure,  had 
taken  on  him  "  the  business  of  promoting  and  procuring 
the  canonization  of  blessed  Anselm,  for  which  he  had 
already  received  two  hundred  marks.""'  But  it  was 
not  until  1494^  that  Alexander  VI.  at  the  instance  of 
Henry  VII.    gave   a   bull    to    Morton,    Archbishop   of 

^  See  Job.  Sar.  Vt7a  S.  A/is.  {Aiii^lia  Sacta,  ii.  173,  175,  181, 
183).  The  letter  of  Alexander  III.  on  the  canonization  is  in 
Materials,  v.  35. 

"  Letter  printed  in  Maiden,  Canotiization  of  Saint  Osmund, 
Salisbury,  1901,  pp.  105-108.  The  cost  of  canonization  was  con- 
siderable. Everything  at  Rome  was  expensive,  notably  the  interest 
of  cardinals.  The  Dean  and  Chapter  of  SaHsbury  expended  what 
would  amount  to  ^10,000  nowadays  on  the  canonization  of  S.  Os- 
mund (formally  completed  January  i,  1457),  not  to  mention  the 
money  expended  for  the  purpose  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries  in  vain. 

^  The  actual  date  is  not  yiven  in  the  Acta  SS.  or  in  Sarum  or 
Roman  Breviary.     The  festival  is  April  21,  the  translation  July  3. 


264  The  English  Saints 

Canterbury,  to  authorize  the  cuU.  In  1720  Clement  XL 
gave  to  the  saint  the  title  of  doctor  of  the  church,  with 
proper  office  and  mass  to  be  said  on  April  21. 

Even  the  completion  of  his  canonization  seems  to 
have  aroused  little  interest.  At  the  Reformation  he 
was  neglected  in  the  special  attention  paid  to  the  relics 
of  S.  Thomas.^  And  in  the  eighteenth  century  when 
the  King  of  Sardinia  desired  to  translate  his  bones  to 
Aosta  they  could  not  be  discovered.^  So  different  was 
Ansclm's  fate  from  that  of  Thomas. 

1  See  Stowe,  Annals^  Sep.  1538:  Hutton,  S.  Thomas  of  Canter- 
bury, pp.  268-9. 

-  It  was  not  mere  Protestantism  but  genuine  ignorance  which 
made  Archbishop  Herring  write  as  he  did,  an  ignorance  which 
seems  to  have  been  shared  by  all  concerned  in  the  inquiry.  See 
Hist.  MSS.  Coininissioii.  Report  on  MSS.  in  various  collcctiofts, 
1901,  vol.  i.,  pp.  226-231.  The  following  letter  speaks  for  itself  as 
to  the  neglect  of  the  great  memory  of  S.  Anselm  :  "  Archbishop 
Herring  to  the  Dean  of  Canterbury.  Dear  Mr.  Dean. — I  had  a 
Request  communicated  to  me  to  Day  of  a  very  singular  Nature  : 
and  it  comes  from  the  Ambassador  of  a  great  Catholic  Prince. 
Arch  Bishop  Anselm,  it  seems,  lies  buried  in  our  Cathedral  and  the 
King  of  Sardinia  has  a  great  Desire  to  be  possess'd  of  his  Bones, 
or  Dust  &  Coffin.  It  seems  he  was  of  the  Country  of  Oost,  the 
Bishop  of  which  has  put  this  Desire  into  the  King's  Head,  who, 
by  the  by,  is  a  most  prodigious  Bigot,  and  in  a  late  Dispute  with 
Geneva  gave  up  Territory  to  redeem  an  old  Church.  You  will 
please  to  consider  this  Request  with  your  Friends  but  not  yet 
capitularly.  You  will  believe  I  have  no  great  Scruples  on  this 
Head,  but  if  I  had  I  would  get  rid  of  them  all  if  the  parting  with 
the  rotten  Remains  of  a  Reljel  to  his  King,  a  Slave  to  the  Popedom 
&  an  Enemy  to  the  married  Clergy  (all  this  Anselm  was)  would 
purchase  Ease  and  Indulgence  to  one  living  Protestant.  It  is 
believed,  that  a  Condescension  in  this  Business  may  facilitate  the 
way  of  doing  it  to  thousands.  I  think  it  is  worth  the  Experiment, 
&  really  for  this  End,  I  should  make  no  Conscience  of  palming  on 
the  Simpletons  any  other  old  Bishop  with  the  Name  of  Anselm. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  265 

It  is  not  far  from  the  greatest  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  S.  Thomas  Becket  that  Stephen  Langton  was  proud 
to  rank  him  among  the  fathers  of  EngHsh  Hberty.  It 
was  he  who  carried  out  the  ceremony  of  his  transla- 
tion/ and  the  eulogy  which  he  delivered  was  no  doubt 
designed  as  a  political  warning  to  the  young  Henry  III."' 
As  the  troubles  gathered  round  the  King  and  his  foreign 
favourites  S.  Thomas  appeared  to  the  Londoners  to  be 
their  guardian  and  support."  In  his  last  days  the  exiled 
S.  Edmund  poured  forth  unceasing  prayer  to  God, 
beseeching  his  intercession  for  the  state  of  the  Church 
of  England  that  was  in  peril.'*  When  Matthew  Paris 
sought  to  make  of  Stephen  Langton  a  national  saint, 
the  true  representative  of  the  kingdom,  it  was  on  the 
model  of  S.  Thomas  that  he  based  his  biography.^  He 
felt  that  the  two  archbishops  alike  resented,  as  he  him- 
self did,  the  intervention  of  the  foreigner,  and,  not  least, 
the  encroaching  power  of  Rome  over  the  national  life. 
Thus  at  every  point  he  represented  his  hero  as  being 
hated    "of  old"   by  the    Pope,   and  as   opposing   the 

I  pray  God  send  you  and  yours  many  happy  new  Years.  .  .  . 
your  aflfectionate  Friend  [T.  Cant.]  Lambeth  House  Dec'.  23, 
1752." 

But  the  chapel  of  the  translation  was  never  forgotten,  and 
M.  Croset-Mouchet  in  his  Anselme^  p.  476,  is  good  enough  to  note 
that  it  was  "  conserve  avec  un  respect  rdligieux  a  travers  les  tenebres 
et  les  injustices  du  protestantisme." 

^  Yox  the  translation  see  Thomas  Saga,  ii.  196,  202  ;  cf.  ii.  210. 

-  The  sermon  is  printed  by  Migne,  Patrol.  Laf.,  vol.  cxc,  p.  408. 

^  See  Matthew  Paris  (Rolls  Series),  vol.  iv.,  pp.  93-95. 

*  Ibid.,  iv.  72. 

^  This  is  printed  by  Liebermann,  Ungedruckte  .  .  .  Geschichts- 
quellen,  Strasburg,  1879,  pp.  323-329,  and  reprinted  in  Mon.  Hist. 
Germ.  Script.,  1888,  pp.  441-3 


266  The  English  Saints 

tribute  to  Rome.  But  though  it  is  clear  that  he  had 
no  desire  to  provoke  the  curia,  it  cannot  have  been  the 
object  of  Matthew  to  carry  through  a  formal  canoniza- 
tion at  Rome  by  means  of  this  Life.  He  rather  wanted 
to  make  a  popular  saint  of  this  "  true  representative  of 
the  kingdom  of  England."^  Inexact  in  details,  he  yet 
makes  no  mistake  in  his  general  conception  of  Lang- 
ton's  importance.  The  Archbishop  was  to  the  historian 
of  the  thirteenth  century  the  link  between  S.  Thomas 
and  the  political  heroes  of  the  Church  in  the  days  of 
Henry  IIL  And  of  these  the  chief  were  Grosseteste, 
S.  Edmund,  and  S.  Richard. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  two  other  English  prelates 
who  were  brought  into  contact  with  grave  political 
crises  are  ranked  among  the  saints,  Edmund  of 
Abingdon,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  Richard  of 
Chichester. 

There  could  be  no  greater  contrast  to  S.  Thomas 
than  S.  Edmund.  Mild  and  gentle,  severe,  if  at  all, 
hardly  at  the  right  times,  he  was  utterly  unable  to  with- 
stand or  amend  the  laxity,  the  intrigues,  and  the  weak 
abnegation  of  duty,  which  marked  the  men  of  his  time. 
Pious  and  simple,  a  spiritual  writer  of  subtlety  and 
charm,  he  was  fitted  rather  for  a  cloister  than  for  the 
throne  of  Augustine.  He  stood  for  a  moment  against 
the  tide,  and  was  swept  away.  The  extraordinary 
austerit}-  of  his  life,  the  contagious  affection  of  his 
intimate  friends,  with  its  result  in  many  miracles,  led 
to  his  canonization  within  seven  years  from  his  death. 
But  all  that  could  be  said  for  him  as  a  public  man  was 
that  his  advice,  though  it  was  not  listened  to,  was 
'  "  Fidelis  regni  Anglic  .idxocatus,"  >i  i,  p.  324. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  267 

worthy  of  a  Christian  bishop.  He  did  not  see  into  the 
future  or  estimate  aright  the  pohtical  forces  that  were 
at  work.^ 

Close  to  him  in  his  troubles  was  Richard  de  Wyche, 
scholar  and  canonist,  who  was  his  friend  of  many 
years-  and  had  been  his  Chancellor  at  Canterbury. 
S.  Richard  might  seem  but  a  pale  reflection  of  S.  Ed- 
mund, for  men  told  how  he  would  always  quote  his 
"lord"  for  every  act  and  tell  of  his  manner  and  voice 
and  preaching.  And  his  biographer  calls  them 
"duo  Cherubim  gloriae  Domini."  Elected  Bishop  of 
Chichester  in  1244,  he  was  regarded  as  so  strong  a 
supporter  of  the  dead  archbishop  that  the  King  did  his 
utmost  to  prevent  his  receiving  the  see.  He  won  by 
appeal  to  Innocent  IV.  by  whom  he  was  consecrated. 
He  made  a  good  bishop,  strict  in  discipline,  abounding 

1  The  admirable  life  by  Dr.  Wilfrid  Wallace,  a  thorough  investi- 
gation, uncritical  only  when  questions  of  medieval  belief  are  con- 
cerned, contains  an  excellent  list  of  authorities  and  describes  the 
Saint's  character  with  due  reverence.  It  draws  the  age  perhaps 
too  darkly.  It  is  emphatic  in  dwelling  on  the  Saint's  wonderful 
austerities.  The  life  in  the  Nova  Legenda,  i.  316-324,  is  a  com- 
pilation chiefly  from  the  life  by  his  chaplain  Bertrand.  An 
excellent  English  collection  of  extracts  is  ^\  Edmund,  by  B.  Ware, 
1903. 

^  For  S.  Richard  of  Chichester,  see  Nova  Legenda  ii.,  328  sqq., 
Bollandist  Ac/a  SS.,  April  i.  277  sqq.  The  life  by  Ralph  Bocking, 
his  chaplain,  written  at  the  time  of  the  canonization,  in  1262,  is  the 
basis  of  each,  Capgrave  abridging  it  with  some  alterations,  the 
Bollandists  printing  both  Ralph's  and  Capgrave's  lives.  There  are 
several  references  to  him  in  Matthew  Paris.  A  sketch  is  given  by 
Dr.  W.  Wallace  in  his  Life  of  S.  Edmund,  pp.  196  sqq.  Oxford 
men  will  not  forget  the  graceful  sonnet  in  which  the  President  of 
Magdalen  in  1892  linked  the  names  of  the  two  Richards  of 
Chichester,  both  scholars  of  Oxford. 


268  The  English  Saints 

ill  cluiiit}-,  unci  like  Grosseteste  an  eager  supporter  of 
the  mendicant  friars.     So  he 

"  Ruling  Cicestria's  '  realm  '  with  gentle  sway 
Sent  light  and  peace  out  o'er  our  troubled  isle  " — 

a  very  picture  of  quietude  and  holy  work  in  days  of 
strife.  And  yet  he  was  not  afraid  to  speak  out  boldly, 
with  Grosseteste  and  others,  against  papal  taxation, 
refusing  it  as  evil  "  lest  the  King  and  we  ourselves 
incur  the  heavy  wrath  of  God."^  But  far  more  his 
heart  was  in  the  Crusade,'-  and  with  the  memory  of  his 
friend.  His  last  act  was  to  consecrate  a  church  and 
a  cemetery  to  the  memory  of  S.  Edmund. 

The  life  of  S.  Richard,  and  the  miracles  told  of  him 
after  his  death,  afford  evidence  of  the  work  that  the 
Church  was  doing  for  the  growth  of  the  simplest  virtues. 
He  was  loved,  and  he  was  canonized,  because  he  lived 
a  peaceable  life  in  all  godliness  and  honesty.  His  was 
a  quiet  memory  in  days  of  strife.-^ 

But  the  claim  to  saintship  in  that  time  of  struggle 
was  asserted  by  the  people  not  only  for  clerks  who  had 
fought  as  true  statesmen  but  for  politicians  also.  And 
here  the  result  was  less  happy,  for  the  feeling  expressed 
was  less  genuine. 

Perhaps  the  strangest  of  all  attempts  at  political 
saint-making  is  that  which  endeavoured  to  represent 
King   Henry  the  younger,    Henry   H.'s   undutiful  and 

1  Matthew  Paris,  Hist.  Maj.  (Rolls  Series),  vol.  v.,  p.  326. 

^  He  collected  the  alms  in  1250  and  preached  it  in  Southern 
England. 

^  For  his  translation  and  canonization  see  State  Papers  :  Papal 
Letters.,  i.  332,  376,  };]■].  Adam  of  Marsh  was  one  of  the  commis- 
sion of  investigation. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  269 

rebellious  son,  as  a  worker  of  miracles.^  It  completely 
failed,  as  it  deserved  to  do.  But  the  Barons'  War 
as  a  vindication  of  EngHsh  liberty — a  very  imperfect 
one — was  not  to  pass  by  without  an  attempt  to  make  a 
saint  from  among  the  political  leaders.  Earl  Simon  de 
Montfort,  the  chief  of  the  oligarchic  party,  was  elevated 

1  Ralph  of  Coggeshall,  CJu-onicon  A)iglicanum  (Rolls  Series). 
At  p.  263,  Magistri  Thoma;  Agnelli  Wellensis  Archdiaconi,  Sermo 
de  morte  et  sepultura  Henrici  regis  junioris  : 

"yEgritudinis  denique  invalescente  molestia  sanctorum  occur- 
rentium  vallatus  patrocinio,  iii°  idus  Junii  felici  consummatione 
diem  clausit  extremum,  et  terrenis  exuviis  depositis  migravit  ad 
Dominum.  Huic  ergo  non  debet  martyrii  gloria  denegari,  qui 
tantarum  persecutionum  violentia  vitam  finivit  vice  gladii." 

I  Here  follows  the  account  of  two  miracles  performed  by  his 
relics,  then] 

"  Placuit  etiam  Altissimo,  qui  in  Sanctis  suis  semper  est  ct  utique 
mirabilis,  ut  locum  in  quo  vir  sanctus  migravit  a  sai^culo  signis 
virtutum  primitiaret,  et  beati  viri  miraculi  testimonio  consignaret ; 
et  qui  extra  portam  suscitare  dignatus  est  vidute  filium,  extra  portam 
confessori  suo  signorum  indiciis  pra;stitit  sanctitatis  testimonium." 

[Here  follows  the  account  of  a  leper  healed  by  coming  in  contact 
with  the  bier.] 

"Ad  perpetuandam  itaque  tam  admirabilem  virtutis  memoriam, 
in  eodem  loco  ad  laudem  Dei  et  gloriam  beati  viri  pia  fidelium 
devotione  constructa  est  ecclesia,  ubi  ad  honorem  ejus  qui  locum 
ilium  signorum  indicio  consecravit,  martyris  continua  agitur  me- 
moria."  And,  p.  271  :  "  Ouodque  maximum  est  potest  sanctitatis 
Eius  indicium,  corpus  sanctum,  cum  amplius  quam  xl  diebus  post 
beati  viri  excessum,  nunc  terras  depositum  [at  Rouen]  nunc  ardori- 
bus  solis  esset  expositum,  nihil  sub  tanti  mora  et  sestivi  fervoris 
inclementia  contraxerat  quod  spiraret  horroris,  nihil  quod  astantium 
posset  nares  offendere  evaporabat  fceti  odoris." 

The  sermon  was  probably  a  bid  for  the  favour  of  Queen  Eleanor, 
after  Henry  II.'s  death,  for  see  p.  272  :  "  Nee  silentio  prictereundum 
censeo  illud  quod  in  Anglorum  partibus  illuxit  virtutis  insigne  quo 
divinje  pietati  complacuit  et  reginam  beati  viri  matrem  divinitus 
consolari,  et  ipsius  meritum  et  gloriam  magnifice  declarari." 


270  The  English  Saints 

by  some  among  the  monks  into  a  martyr.'  The 
Chronicler  of  Melrose,  safe  from  direct  attack,  and 
perhaps  nourishing  a  nationalist  animosity  against  King 
Edward,  elaborated  a  comparison  between  Simon  the 
righteous  and  Simon  Peter,  the  prince  of  the  apostles, 
in  prayer  and  watching,  in  fasting  and  frugality. 
And  not  content  with  that  he  was  compared  also  to 
S.  Thomas  of  Canterbury.  Even  in  his  lifetime  he  was 
set  forth  as  a  pattern. 

"  You  might  have  heard,"  says  the  Chronicle  of  Mel- 
rose,- "  grave  and  religious  men,  of  different  orders, 
saying  everywhere  throughout  England  (of  whom  some 
came  into  Scotland  and  said  the  same)  that  after  Simon 
was  dead  they  would  quite  as  willingly  visit  his  tomb 
for  the  purpose  of  their  praying  to  God,  as  they  would 
go  to  Jerusalem  for  the  same  purpose.  This  was  in 
consequence  of  the  austerity  of  his  life,  as  demonstrated 
by  the  hair-cloth  which  he  wore ;  for  those  who  were 
the  chamber  fellows  with  him  had  mentioned  to  some 
of  their  most  intimate  friends  that  Simon  used  a  shirt 
of  hair ;  for  there  is  nothing  hidden  which  shall  not  be 
revealed.  Another  reason  was  that  he  had  taken  in 
hand  the  most  righteous  cause  of  defending  the  in- 
habitants of  England.  There  were  others  who  said 
that  if  at  the  time  when  they  were  speaking  Simon  had 
fallen  for  the  sake  of  right  (as  he  afterwards  did)  they 
would  quite  as  readily  have  gone  to  his  sepulchre  there 
to  pray  to  God,  as  to  the  great  shrine  of  S.  Thomas 
the  martyr,   in  which    he  reposes  at    Canterbury,  en- 

'  "Quid  ergo?     Suspiria  mutantur  in  laudis  prneconia,  ct  revixit 
pristinae  laetitias  magnitudo."     Rishanger,  Chronicon^  p.  49. 
2  Ed.  Stevenson  (Bannatyne  Club),  pp.  207  sqq. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  271 

dowed  by  God  with  many  miracles^  and  adorned  with 
precious  stones.  The  remark  which  they  made  in  their 
conversation  with  each  other  was  not  devoid  of  sound 
reason,  for  no  less  did  Simon  die  for  the  lawful  right  of 
the  just  possessions  of  England  than  Thomas  for  the 
lawful  right  of  the  churches  of  England.  Each  of  them 
had  died  in  his  own  day,  clothed  in  the  penance  of 
hair-cloth,  a  penance  which  sooner  than  any  other  leads 
a  man  to  God,  that  so  they  might  put  on  incorruption 
through  means  of  the  penance  thus  voluntarily  assumed 
by  God's  inspiration. 

"After  the  precious  death  of  this  Simon  the  Friars 
Minor,-  whom  he  had  always  loved  as  became  a 
religious  man,  and  who  also  were  acquainted  with 
the  inmost  thoughts  of  his  heart  in  many  things, 
taking  matter  of  a  speech  from  his  hfe,  published  a 
history  out  of  his  good  deeds,  consisting  of  lessons, 
responses,  verses,  hymns,  and  other  matter  appertain- 
ing to  the  honour  and  respect  due  to  a  martyr ;  but  as 
long  as  Edward  survives  this  compilation  does  not 
attain  that  acceptance  by  being  chanted  within  the 
church  of  God,  which  was  hoped  for." 

^  Cf.  Ban  of  Kenilworth.,  c.  8  (Stubbs's  Select  Charters).  "  We 
humbly  ask  both  the  lord  legate  and  the  lord  king  that  the  lord 
legate  himself  forthwith  forbid,  under  ecclesiastical  distraint,  that 
Simon,  Earl  of  Leicester,  be  held  by  anyone  as  a  saint  or  righteous 
person,  since  he  died  under  excommunication,  as  holy  Church  holdeth 
that  the  vain  and  foolish  miracles  told  by  some  of  him  be  uttered 
by  no  lip  hereafter,  and  that  the  lord  king  strictly  forbid  the  same 
under  pain  of  corporal  punishment."  Cf.  also  the  elaborate  list  of 
miracles  in  the  Miractila  Sinionis  (ed.  Haliwell,  Camden  Society) 
with  the  poem  there  addressed  to  Simon,  Salve  comes  inontis  fortis. 

"  See  also  Carmen  de  Bello  Lewensi  (ed.  Kingsford,  1890),  doubt- 
less the  work  of  a  Franciscan. 


272  The  English  Saints 

So  the  chronicler  writes,  and  three  hymns,  part  of 
the  office,  still  remain.^  A  resemblance  between  them 
and  the  famous  partizan  "  Song  of  Lewes  fight "  suggests 
that  it  was  the  ardent  Franciscan  politician  who  wrote 
the  song  who  compiled  also  the  office.-  In  the  song, 
which  celebrated  Simon's  victory  over  Henry  III.,  the 
Earl  is  declared  to  be  the  deliverer  of  the  Church,  and 
the  avenger  of  her  wrongs,'^  and  the  theory  that  the 
king  is  responsible  for  his  acts  and  ought  to  be  cor- 
rected if  he  does  wrong  is  clearly  enunciated."* 

The  writer  of  the  poem  and  the  office,  and  indeed 
the  whole  Franciscan  order  in  England,  well  knew 
that  there  was  no  more  powerful  way  to  influence  the 
people  than  by  attributing  to  their  hero  the  glory  of 
sainthood.  If  a  veneration  could  spring  up  over  Eng- 
land in  his  memory,  Simon's  principles  would  never  be 
forgotten. 

If  men  tried  to  make  a  saint  of  Simon  de  Montfort 
it  needed  no  stretch  of  im.aginative  enthusiasm  to  speak 
of  Grosseteste  as  Saint  Robert.  Royalists  and  oligarchs 
alike  hailed  him  among  those  whom  God  had  especially- 
blessed^  :  pilgrimages  were  made  to  his  tomb''  and 
miracles  were  wrought." 

Strong  efforts  were  made  for  his  canonization  espe- 

Sec  Mr.  Prothero's  Life  of  Sinwji  de  Moti/fofi,  pp.  3S8-391. 

-  As  Mr.  Kingsford  ingeniously  argues  in  the  introduction  to  his 
valuable  edition  of  the  Carmen  de  Bello  Lewensi,  pp.  xxi-xxiv. 

^  Carmen  de  bello  Leivensi,  11.  23-55. 

'*  Ibid.,  11.  730-740. 

"  See  Thomas  of  Wykes,  ^;7;;.  yl/w/^w/.,  iv.  103:  Adam  of  Marsh, 
Mon.  Francisc.,  325. 

^'  Htirlon  A/i/!ah\  344. 

^  Matt.  Paris,  Hisi.  Maj.,  v.  491.     Risliangcr,  Citron.,  p.  71. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  273 

cially  in  12S6,  1288,  and  1307.  Edward  I.  himself 
joined  in  urging  upon  the  papacy  the  claims  of  one 
whom  the  clergy  and  the  people  revered  and  who  had 
never  feared  king  or  Pope  or  people.  But  the  attempts 
failed.  As  in  other  cases,  the  reason  of  the  failure  is 
unknown,  but  it  may  be  conjectured  to  be  due  to  three 
causes.  The  monks,  for  all  their  protesting,  can  hardly 
have  been  very  eager  for  the  beatification  of  one  who 
was  so  decidedly  "  malleus  monachorum."^  The  Popes 
could  have  as  little  sympathy  with  one  who  withstood 
them  to  the  face.  And  before  Wyclif  had  long  in- 
fluenced English  feeling  men  traced  a  sympathy  be- 
tween his  views  and  those  of  the  great  bishop  of 
Lincoln.'     And  also  the  expenses  were  considerable.'' 

But  surely  of  all  Englishmen  who  mixed  the  colours 
of  their  politics  with  religion  Grosseteste  most  de- 
served to  be  remembered  by  his  nation.  He  honoured 
the  king  but  he  feared  God  more :  he  was  a  scholar, 
a   teacher    of    statesmen,   a   wise    and   understanding 

1  Observe  the  famous  comments  of  Matthew  Paris  upon  his 
visitations. 

-  See  Wychf,   English    Works,  iii.   467,  who  comments  on   the 
failure  to  secure  his  canonization.     The  Enghsh  vernacular  books 
of  prayer  were  believed  to  be  associated  with  his  influence.     The 
Rev.  Edgar  Hoskins  writes  to  me  (May  25,  1901).     "Brit.  Mus. 
Add.   17376.     (Psalter   in    English    with    Hours  of  the  Virgin  in 
English  Stanzas)  Cent.  xiv.  has  Fol.  I98^    Hymn  to  B.V.M.    '  Mary 
maid  mild  and  free '  and  at  the  end  fol.  205''. 
"  '  Oretis  pro  anima  Domini 
Roberti  Grosseteyte  quondam 
Episcopi  Lincolniensis.' 
"'Oretis'  is  to  my  mind  significant." 

^  Cf.  Stevenson,  Robert  Grosseteste,  p.  328,  and  see  Canonization 
of  S.  Osmund,  pp.  105-108. 

18 


274  The  English  Saints 

student  of  his  times.  Well  might  later  ages  remember 
him  as  "  a  perfect  godly  man."' 

Stranger  than  .the  veneration  of  Simon  de  Montfort 
was  that  of  a  less  reputable  political  leader.  Thomas 
Earl  of  Lancaster,"- whom  Edward  II.  put  to  death  as  a 
rebel  in  1322,  was  said  within  a  year  to  work  miracles 
at  Pontefract,  where  his  body  was  buried  near  the  high 
altar :  and  more  obscure  persons  of  his  party  were 
suspected  of  following  suit  i^  and  in  1327  the  Commons 
actually  petitioned  for  his  canonization.^  It  was  an 
expression  of  the  popular  sentiment  for  the  House  of 
Lancaster  and  its  traditional  policy  of  popular  control. 
Saintship  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  the  ht  recognition 
of  an  honest  political  creed.  If  the  policy  was  right  the 
man  responsible  for  it  was  a  saint.  So  again,  in  1469, 
when  Robin  of  Redesdale  was  trying  to  see  if  there 
was  chance  of  a  Lancastrian  restoration,  the  relics  of 
the  Earl  Thomas  began  to  sweat  blood  and  work 
miracles.^  To  this  had  hagiology  come :  and  yet 
though  the  object  of  veneration  had  been  disreputable 
the  political  sentiment  was  not  discreditable.  Men 
thought  the  Lancastrian  policy  was  right  :  and  if  it 
was  right,  certainly  God  hallowed  it. 

Another  political  execution  which  it  was  attempted 

^  Drayton  Folyolbion^  xix. 

2  In  the  Anecdola  ex  codicibiis  hagiographicis  J.  Gieleinans 
(1895)  is  printed  a  sanctilogium  from  a  MS.  in  the  private  Hbrary 
of  the  Emperor  of  Austria  which,  pp.  80-100,  gives  his  Life,  Mar- 
tyrdom and  miracles. 

"^  Rymer's  Fccdern,  ii.  526,  536,  547  :    see  Stubbs,  Const.  fJisL, 

ii-  354- 

*  See  Stubbs,  ii.  369.     Walsingham,  ii.  195. 

^  Chrott.  Abbrev.{C2im\i.A.x\\\(\.  Soc),  p.  10;  see  Stubbs,  iii.  285. 


The  Statesmen  Saints  275 

to  turn  into  a  martyrdom  was  that  of  Archbishop  Scrope 
(1405)  for  treason  against  Henry  IV.  At  his  hasty 
trial  he  declared  that  he  had  intended  no  harm  against 
the  king^:  but  he  had  in  his  proclamation  of  grievances 
described  him  as  a  cruel  beast,-  a  murderer  and  excom- 
municate. At  such  a  time  of  danger  a  king  insecure 
on  his  throne  could  not  afford  to  be  scrupulous.  Scrope 
died  as  a  traitor.  He  was  buried,  with  scant  ceremony 
though  with  loving  care,  in  the  Minster^;  and  it  was 
not  long  before  men  began  to  speak  of  the  alleged 
miracles.  Relics  were  collected,  people  began  to  call 
him  "  blessed  "  and  saint,  his  prayers  were  asked,  and, 
nearly  sixty  years  later,  the  Convocation  of  York 
sought  "  the  holy  work  of  the  canonization  of  Richard 
Scrope  of  blessed  and  pious  memory."^  There  is  still 
a  window  in  the  Minster  with  a  portrait  of  the  Arch- 
bishop and  his  nephew  and  the  words  "  O  Ricarde 
pastor  bone,  tui  famuli  miserere  Stephani  "^ :  and  up  to 
the  pillage  of  Henry  VHI.  his  tomb  was  decorated 
with  many  precious  models  of  things  recovered  or 
healed  by  his  aid.  But  no  one  was  audacious  enough 
actually  to  apply  to  Rome  for  the  canonization.  Like 
Henry  VL  he  could  be  a  saint  only  to  those  who  loved 
his  memory.*' 

So,  as  the   Middle  Age  draws  to  its  close,  we  may 
end  our  sketches  of  statesmen  saints.     There  are  many 

^   Miscellanea  relating  to  Abp.  Scrope  in  Histor.  of  York,  ii.  307. 
-  Ibid.,  pp.  298,  300,  301. 
^  See  the  notes  in  Wylie's  Henry  IV.  ii.,  343. 
*  Browne  History  of  S.  Peter's,  York,  p.  245. 
■'•  Wylie,  ii.  356. 

"  Mr.  Wylie,  ii.  364-367,  strangely  compares  his  case  with  that  of 
Dorothy  of  Pomesania. 

18—2 


276  The  English  Saints 

later  names  whom  we  should  delight  to  honour.  Few 
of  us,  strongly  though  we  repudiate  the  Romanist 
dogma  of  Papal  supremacy,  would  cavil  at  the  decree' 
which  gives  the  name  of  blessed  to  the  gentle  bishop 
and  the  wise  chancellor  whom  the  savage  passion  of 
Henry  VIII.  hurried  to  the  block.  Few,  as  the  mists 
roll  away,  would  scruple  to  remember  with  reverence 
the  name  of  one  of  Oxford's  greatest  benefactors,-  who 
died  on  the  scaffold  with  the  happy  text  on  his  lips 
"  Cupio  dissolvi  et  esse  cum  Christo." 

But  with  such  men  we  reach  an  age  of  other  ideals, 
more  complex,  more  disputable,  perhaps  as  yet  less 
well  understood.  We  pause  on  the  threshold  :  but  as 
we  look  back  we  can  see  that  the  strength  of  English 
political  life  has  been  found.  The  endeavour  to  rank 
men  of  inferior  and  selfish  aims  among  the  heroes  of 
English  liberty  failed  :  but  Englishmen  cherished  the 
memories  of  those  in  whom  they  saw  the  virtues  they 
most  valued  and  most  strenuously  endeavoured  to  imi- 
tate, of  S.  Dunstan  and  S.  Anselm  and  S.  Thomas, 
of  men  who  had  set  God  always  before  their  face, 
who  were  honest,  unselfish,  loyal  and  true.  Strength, 
subtlety,  gentleness,  were  each  transfigured  by  the 
grace  of  Christ.  The  earthly  statecraft  was  brought 
into  obedience  to  the  heavenly  citizenship,  without 
which  it  would  be  but  a  maimed  distorted  thing. 

'  Leo  XIII.  on  Dec.  9,  1886,  approved  the  beatification  of  John 
Fisher  and  Thomas  More  (with  a  number  of  others  whose  claims 
it  is  permissible  to  doubt). 

"  "  1  greatly  rejoice"  wrote  Mr.  Gladstone  to  me  on  January  6, 
1895,  "in  the  important  historical  rectification  which  has  now 
advanced  so  far  as  to  be,  I  trust,  beyond  all  likelihood  of  reversal." 


APPENDIX    TO    LECTURE    VI 

ENGLISH   MEDIEVAL  MIRACLES 

It  is  not  proposed  in  this  note  to  give  an  exhaustive  rationale 
of  medieval  miracles.  This  would  be  beyond  the  power  or 
knowledge  of  the  writer.  It  is  intended  rather  to  mention 
some  cases  which  may  be  regarded  as  typical  and  to  suggest 
a  rough  classification  based  upon  a  somewhat  wider  survey. 
In  the  first  place  it  may  be  observed  that  miracles  do  not 
make  a  saint.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  truth 
than  the  statement  of  Mr.  J.  W.  Willis  Bund,  The  Celtic 
Church  of  Wales,  p.  457,  in  regard  to  "  the  Latin  saint  " 
(why  Latin  and  not  Teutonic  also  ?)  :  "  His  whole  claim  to 
sanctity  rested,  not  on  who  he  was,  but  on  what  he  could 
do,  and  it  was  therefore  necessary  that  miracles  should 
always  be  going  on  at  his  tomb  so  as  to  keep  him  well  in 
evidence."  Far  more  true  was  the  view  of  Sir  Thomas 
Duffus  Hardy  (Descriptive  Catalogue  of  Materials  relating  to  the 
History  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  Rolls  Series,  vol.  i., 
part  i.,  1862,  Preface,  p.  xix),  whose  authority  is  not  to  be 
disputed.  Of  miracles  he  says  :  "  They  would  be  important 
were  it  only  to  show  how  man,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  never 
made  the  attempt  to  blend  into  harmony  the  seen  and  the 
unseen ;  how  ready  he  was  to  attribute  the  action  of  the 
outer  world  to  a  spiritual  agency,  whose  efficacy  he  recog- 
nized in  himself  and  in  his  own  power  of  rising  above  nature. 
These  miracles  were  the  growth  of  a  superstitious  age,  I 
admit ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  the  age  was  truthless 
because  it  was  superstitious  ;  nor  is  it  in  conformity  with 
all  our  knowledge  of  its  poverty  of  invention  to  assert  that 
these  narratives  were  studiously  invented  to  impose  upon 
[  277  ] 


278  The  English  Saints 

the  unwary.  IVc  look  for  natural  causes  to  explain  all 
effects,  however  marvellous.  They  looked  for  the  super- 
natural to  explain  even  the  most  simple,  and  felt  it  impious 
to  do  otherwise.  It  is,  moreover,  hard  to  tell  how  far  these 
legends  are  to  be  regarded  as  a  poetical  or  allegorical  version 
of  actual  experience  ;  the  external  and  material  present- 
ment, in  a  rude  age,  of  a  spiritual  reality."  The  spiritual 
reality  behind  them  gave  them  their  force.  The  life  of  the 
saint  made  them  real  to  men  :  certainly  they  did  not  make 
the  saint. 

Miracles  at  the  tomb,  or  through  the  inter\ention  of  the 
saint,  came  to  be  the  almost  indispensable  necessities  for 
canonization.  Great  as  were  S.  Osmund's  services  to 
liturgiology,  and  to  the  "  dignity  and  comfort  "  of  the 
Chapter  of  Salisbury,  he  would  never  have  been  canonized 
were  it  not  for  the  fifty-two  miracles  attested  by  seventy- 
five  witnesses,  which  were  furbished  up  in  1424  from  the 
records  of  the  cathedral  church  and  from  the  personal 
experience  of  the  chapter. ^  But  miracles  were  not  in 
themselves  ever  regarded  as  sufficient  evidence  of  sanctity. 
Thus,  though  it  is  true  that  when  canonization  came  to  be 
a  process  formally  conducted  at  Rome,  miracles  were  a 
necessary  proof  of  sanctity  (in  most  cases  two  are  enough, 
says  Ferrari,  "  Etiamsi  sint  solum  tertii  generis  "  : — the 
whole  question  is  treated  at  very  great  length  by  Bene- 
dict XIV.),  Benedict  XIV.  explicitly  asserts  that  without 
holiness  of  life,  miracles  and  visions  are  of  no  value  what- 
ever (see  above,  p.  20,  and  cf.  De  Beat,  et  Can.  SS.,  vol.  vii., 
pp.  73,  74).  And  this  was  the  view  even  of  those  who  were 
most  familiar  with  them. 

Even  in  the  Middle  Ages,  at  which  we  so  readily  mock, 
there  was  not  always  an  exaggerated  belief  in  the  value  of 
"  miracles."  "  Let  others,"  says  Turgot,  "  admire  the 
tokens  of  miracles  which  they  see  in  others,  I,  for  my  part, 
admire  much  more  the  works  of   mercy   which   I  saw  in 

'  See  Maiden,  Canonization  of  S.  Osmund,  Wilts  Records 
Society,  1902,  printing  documents  in  full. 


Appendix  to  Lecture  VI  279 

Margaret.  Miracles  are  common  in  the  evil  and  the  good, 
but  works  of  true  piety  and  charity  belong  to  the  good 
alone.  The  former  sometimes  indicate  holiness,  but  the 
latter  are  holiness  itself.  Let  us,  I  say,  admire  in  Margaret 
the  things  which  made  her  a  saint,  rather  than  the  miracles, 
if  she  did  any,  which  might  only  have  indicated  that  she 
was  one  to  men  "  (Turgot,  Life  of  S.  Margaret,  cap.  iii.). 
The  same  was  the  feeling  of  S.  Hugh  of  Lincoln.  When 
he  was  told  of  a  miracle  in  the  Eucharist,  he  refused  to 
witness  it — "  In  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  he  said,  "  let  them 
keep  to  themselves  the  signs  of  their  want  of  faith  "  {Magna 
Vita,  V.  4).  This  was  the  spirit  in  which  Gregory  the 
Great  spoke  of  spiritual  miracles  as  far  transcending 
physical  ones  {Dialog.,  iii.  17),  emphasized  the  truth  that 
"  vitae  vera  aestimatio  in  virtute  est  operum  non  in  osten- 
sione  signorum  "  {ibid.,  i.  12),  and  warned  Augustine  not  to 
think  highly  of  the  mighty  works  that  had  been  shown  in 
him.  Even  medieval  writers  exercised  some  faculty  of 
criticism,  though  in  but  limited  fashion,  on  the  miracles 
submitted  to  them.  Hermann,  who  recorded  the  miracles 
of  S.  Edmund  of  East  Anglia,  notes  not  a  few  failures 
(though  they  are  at  other  churches  than  his  own),  and 
frequently  observes  that  the  miracle  remains  incomplete, 
and  historians  like  Wibert  of  Nogent  and  Henry  of  Hunt- 
ingdon constantly  condemn  spurious  wonders. 

To  the  Middle  Ages  indeed  the  boundary  between  the 
natural  and  the  supernatural  was  a  very  uncertain  one 
Men  had  formulated  as  clearly  as  they  have  now  a  theory 
of  the  uniformity  of  Nature,  though  not  so  complete  a 
theory  :  and  therefore  the  variations  from  her  laws  seemed 
to  them  more  frequent  and  peculiar.  But  to  deny  such 
variations  is  impossible  ;  and  the  theologians  of  the  Middle 
Ages  were  wise  in  declaring  that  the  only  tenable  explana- 
tion of  them  was  the  action  of  a  Higher  Power.  Experience 
may  speak  more  or  less  certainly  against  the  violation  or 
supersession  of  these  laws,  under  ordinary  circumstances  : 
but    then    experience   is   not    complete.      In    other  words. 


28o  The  English  Saints 

medieval  thinkers  would  have  expressed  themselves  if 
questioned  by  moderns  much  as  did  Mark  Pattison  in 
regard  to  the  healing  spring  which  was  said  to  have  burst 
forth  where  S-  Ninian  preached — "  Men  of  this  day  may 
smile  at  their  simplicity  ;  but  better  surely  is  the  mind 
which  receives  as  no  incredible  thing,  the  unusual  inter- 
position of  Him,  who  worketh  all  things  according  to  the 
counsel  of  His  own  will  ;  better  the  spirit  which  views  the 
properties  of  a  salubrious  spring  as  the  gift  of  God,  granted 
to  a  faithful  and  holy  servant,  than  that  which  would 
habitually  exclude  the  thought  of  the  Great  Doer  of  all, 
by  resting  on  the  Laws  of  Nature  as  something  independent 
of  Him,  not,  as  they  are,  the  way  in  which  He  usually 
works ;  or  thanklessly  and  as  a  matter  of  course  receive 
the  benefit  of  some  mineral  waters "  {Life  of  S.  Ninian  in 
Newman's  Lives  of  the  Saints).  It  must  also  be  noted  that 
the  belief  in  miracles  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  dependent  on 
two  other  and  essential  beliefs. 

I.  No  divine  powers  were  claimed  for  the  wonder-workers. 
The  witnesses,  and  those  who  recorded  their  witness,  never 
dreamed  that  anyone  should  attribute  to  them  any  power  of 
their  own.  The  claim  made  for  Becket,  for  example,  is  to 
be  compared,  if  it  be  compared  with  the  sacred  records  at 
all,  with  the  claim  of  S.  Peter  in  Acts  iv.  lo,  that  "by  the 
Name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  .  .  .  even  by  Him  doth  this 
man  stand  here  before  you  whole."  The  glory  throughout  is 
that  of  God.  No  better  examples  could  be  found  than 
those  in  the  MiraculaS.  Edmnndi  Ungedr.  Geschichts.,  Lieber- 
mann).  Hermann  gives  God  the  glory,  and  represents  the 
Saint's  powers  as  intercessory.  Thus,  according  to  refer- 
ences given  by  Liebermann  on  p.  224:  §  64.  in  1095,  a 
time  of  long  drought :  "  Incipit  voce  praesul  [sc.  Walkelin, 
bp.  Winchester]  precelsa,  de  martyre  sancto  plebi  sermo- 
cinatur  dulcia  simul  et  utilia,  redigens  omnia  ad  animse 
corporisque  necessariora,  scilicet  ut  presens  sanctns  apnd 
Denm  vcniam  presentihus  impctraret  et  ahsentihus,  pluvia^que 
jam  diu    deficientis  affluentiam  condonaret  salutarem  indi- 


Appendix  to  Lecture  VI  281 

gentibus.  .  .  .  Ecce,  dum  Deus  oratur,  sanctus  etiam  in 
Deo  interpellatur,  aeris  facies  mutata  quod  desideratur 
minitat.  .  .  .  Nam  interventti  sancti,  velut  credimus,  secuta  est 
aeris  tanta  temperies,  quanta  desiderari  potuit  ab  homini- 
bus  m  dies.  Nunc  nunc  psalmista  [Psa.  145,  18]  profite- 
atur  verus,  dicens  '  esse  prope  Dominumeuminvocantibus': 
prope  est  enim  in  veritate  se  invocantibus  ;  sed  est  propior, 
Sanctis  intervenientibus,  quia  quo  boni  presto  sunt  inter- 
ventores,  dulciores  subsequuntur  exauditores"  (Liebermann, 
pp.  279-280).  Further,  the  saint  works  in  and  through  God 
by  unity  of  will  with  God:  §  i.  (Prologue)  Martene  822: 
"  Memores  simus  virtutum  suorum  (sc.  Dei)  operum  per  se 
siwsque  sanctos  effectorum."  §  4.  Martene  824  B  :  ".  .  .  pre- 
tiosi  martyris  Eadmundi  gesta  mirifica  patrata  per  eum 
quando  et  quomodo  voluit  Omnipotentis  dementia.  Opera- 
tur  enim  per  suos  fideles  Omnipotens  ut  per  instrumenta 
artificialia  quivis  artifex  prudens,  quod  et  propheticis  appro- 
batur  dictis,  dicendo  :  Mirahilis  Dens  in  Sanctis  suis ;  quae 
operata  mirabilia  fidem  credendi  nobis  augent  et  implent,  si 
vera  relatione  florent,  ut  debent."  §  7.  Martene  828  E,  a 
dying  man  "  pandit  astantibus  Suveyn  Sancti  perfossiim 
cuspide,  vitam  male  perdidisse  Dei  pro  sancto  ultione.''  Ibid. 
829  A  :  "  Ut  superius  de  Suveyn  relata  ultio  peregit  diviiia." 
§  36.  Liebermann,  pp.  247-8  :  "  Super  quem  martyr  [Ead- 
muiidus]  revera  vigilavit :  quem  iiltio  divina  post  paucos  dies 
cefalargica  passione  percussit.  .  .  .  Verum  quia  sancti 
sciunt  quodammodo,  quae  cordium  intima  patent  Deo, 
recusal  Deus  et  sanctus  caereum,  quem  mittit  mala  mens 
vel  malus  animus."  §  49.  Liebermann,  p.  261,  after  a 
vision  and  restoration  of  stolen  goods  :  "  Sed  quod  in  hac 
re  videtur  verum  et  summum,  talia  fuerunt  per  Deum  et 
sanctum  [Eadmundum]."  §  67.  Liebermann,  p.  281  : 
"  [Deu]s,  cujus  in  sancto  via  ejus,  faciens  mirabilia  solus 
essentialiter  Deus,  in  populis  suam  notificat  virtutem, 
etiam  in  inrationabilibus  invocatione  fidelium  dans  exhibi- 
tionem.  Quod  dum  asscribitur  ad  laudem  Dei,  non  minus 
dicitur  a  laude  sancti,  quia  quo  Deus  invocatur  per  sanctos. 


282  The  English  Saints 

eo  sua  gratia  mirificat  eos,  indigentibus  prebendo  beneficia, 
periclitantibus  etiam  prestando  levamina."  Further,  Her- 
mann praises  God  at  the  same  time  as  the  Saint  :  >$  3. 
Liebermann,  p.  233  :  "  Ad  laudeni  ergo  Redemptoris  et  in 
honorem  sui  martyris  miracula  disseramus  nostri  protectoris, 
fisi  de  munere  Domini  creatoris!"  §  31.  Liebermann, 
p.  244,  after  Osgod  Clapa  has  recovered  his  senses:  "  Laus 
et  ymnus  persolvitur  Deo  et  sancto."  §  52.  Liebermann, 
p.  264,  Normann(us)  journeys  on,  "ejus  se  fiducia  muniens, 
cujus  filacterium  ferebat  in  collo  dependens,  glorificans 
Deum  in  secula  seculorum."  §  65.  Witnesses  of  the  healing 
of  a  cripple,  "  laudem  adaugent  [Eadmundi]  martyris, 
virtutem  videntes  Omnipotentis."     Liebermann,  p.  280. 

This  point,  though  it  is  an  obvious  one,  is  often  forgotten 
by  critics  of  medieval  miracles.     Equally  important  is 

IL  The  power  of  God,  evoked  by  the  intercession  of  the 
saint,  was  exercised  in  and  through  the  Church.  Miracles, 
thought  the  Nonjuror  Dodwell,  became  scarce  or  abounded 
according  to  the  need.  No  one  in  the  Middle  Ages  would 
have  denied  this.  In  the  continuous  Society  resided  a  power 
which  was  from  time  to  time  manifested.  Mr.  Arthur 
Balfour  has  shown  in  regard  to  the  miracle-controversies,  of 
which  h€  rightly  says  that  "  no  profit  can  yet  be  extracted  " 
when  the  contention  is  merely  "as  to  the  precise  relation  in 
which  they  stand  to  the  Order  of  the  world,"  that  con- 
troversialists have  been  continually  in  error  in  ascribing  to 
the  early  Christian  writers  a  theory  of  the  world  and  of  their 
mission  of  which  they  were  entirely  innocent.  It  has  often 
been  argued  as  if  their  "  message  to  mankind  consisted  in 
announcing  the  existence  of  another,  or  supernatural  world, 
which  occasionally  upset  one  or  two  of  [the  assumed]  natural 
uniformities  by  means  of  a  miracle  "  {The  Foundations  of 
Belief,  p.  312).  And  this,  we  may  add,  is  true,  and  perhaps 
equally  true,  of  the  medieval  hagiologists.  It  is  idle  to 
discuss  medieval  miracles  from  such  a  point  of  view,  or  to 
criticise  thus  the  medieval  hagiologists.  "  No  such  theory 
can  be  extracted  from  their  writings,"  says   Mr.  Balfour, 


Appendix  to  Lecture  VI  283 

still  speaking  of  the  Evangelists,  "and  no  such  theory 
should  be  read  into  them ;  and  this  not  merely  because 
such  an  attribution  is  unhistorical,  nor  yet  because  there  is 
any  ground  for  doubting  the  interactions  of  the  '  spiritual ' 
and  the  '  natural ' ;  but  because  this  account  of  the  '  natural ' 
itself  [I.e.,  that  of  uniformity  acting  automatically]  is  one 
which,  if  interpreted  strictly,  seems  open  to  grave  philosophic 
objection,  and  is  certainly  deficient  in  philosophic  proof" 
(ibid.)  It  is  true  that  they  regarded  what  they  called 
miracles  as  "  wonders  due  to  the  special  action  of  Divine 
power "  ;  but  the  world  being  to  them  the  theatre  of  the 
continual  exercise  of  this  Divine  power,  in  the  course  of 
external  nature  and  in  the  processes  of  the  human  soul, 
the  miracle  was  not  out  of  relation  to  but  a  part  of  the 
scheme  of  Divine  government  of  the  Church  and  of  man. 
As  Bernoulli  puts  it  (Die  Heiligen  der  Merozmnger,  1900, 
pp.  271,  272),  in  ancient  and  in  medieval  religion  the  miracle 
is  not  supernatural,  but  a  natural  function  of  a  second, 
higher,  world,  which  goes  its  own  way  and  speaks  its  own 
tongue.  The  miracles  in  Gregory  of  Tours  are,  in  his  words, 
against  nature,  but  not  against  reason.  Miracles  seemed 
to  the  writers  to  be  an  evidence  of  God's  abiding  presence 
with  His  Church,  the  treasury  of  His  graces  and  the  store- 
house of  the  virtues  of  the  saints.  This  to  some  extent 
accounts  for  the  obviously  imitative  character  of  many  of 
the  miracles.  The  imitation  was  rarely  conscious  and  yet  at 
the  same  time  it  was  largely  literary.  Men  wrote  of  wonders 
done  by  their  contemporaries  which  had  been  done  by  Christ 
or  His  Apostles,  because  they  saw  no  reason  why  the  powers 
once  given  should  have  been  withdrawn  ;  and,  when  they 
wrote,  their  language  was  naturally  that  of  those  who  were 
saturated  with  the  thoughts  and  expressions  of  the  Vulgate. 
When  we  turn  to  the  stories  it  is  evident  that  the  concep- 
tion of  exact  accuracy  as  we  have  it  now  did  not  then  exist. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  miracles  attributed  to  the 
saints  were  all  written  down  for  edification.  The  way  in 
which  a  thing  occurred,  the  details  of  the  evidence  for  it, 


284  The  English  Saints 

really  did  not  matter.  The  event,  the  healing,  the  punish- 
ment, had  happened.  The  names  of  the  persons  were 
given.  This  seemed  all  that  was  necessary.  This  accounts 
for  the  number  of  impossible  things  which  are  stated  in  the 
gravest  way  and  sometimes  by  the  gravest  persons.  What 
Eadnier  believed  on  the  word  of  Helias  was  believed  by 
others  on  the  word  of  Eadmer.  Bede  believed  Herebald 
of  Tynemouth  when  he  told  him  that  years  before  his  skull 
had  been  fractured  and  his  thumb  broken  and  both  had 
been  miraculously  healed  by  Bishop  John  of  Hexham. 
The  wonderful  virtues  of  Canterbury  water  in  the  same 
way  were  believed  by  Benedict  of  Canterbury,  when  "  the 
rumour  had  gone  abroad  as  to  how  the  holy  Thomas  had 
wrought  a  beautiful  miracle  on  prior  Robert  inasmuch  as 
he  had  cured  a  certain  hurt  of  his  leg,"  on  the  evidence  of 
prior  Robert  himself,  who  wrote  to  him  that  it  was  indeed 
true,  though  the  physicians  had  assured  him  that  he  had 
"  without  doubt  caught  the  disease  which  is  called  morbus 
chronicus  and  is  not  to  be  healed  by  the  hand  of  man  "  (Thomas 
Saga,  ii.  93,  sqq.).  Thus  both  the  most  honest  men  were 
at  the  mercy  of  those  who  wilfully  invented  to  deceive,  and 
the  acceptance  of  one  marvel  tended  to  the  acceptance,  or 
imagination,  of  many  more. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  there  was  a  steady  growth  in  the 
stories  of  miracle.  The  earlier  stages  of  the  conversion  of 
England,  it  is  clear  from  Bede,  were  not  associated  in 
men's  memories  with  much  that  was  miraculous  :  in  the 
same  way  the  miracles  of  S.  Martin  (see  Life  of  Archbishop 
Benson,  ii.  227)  are  "easily  reducible  to  order  and  thought." 

The  Life  of  Columba  by  Adamnan  is  an  excellent  example 
of  the  growth  of  legend.  It  contains  a  number  of  personal 
traits  which  bear  the  stamp  of  unquestionable  truth.  It 
includes  some  stories  which  are  at  least  gross  exaggerations, 
and  many  in  which  the  inference  of  supernatural  interven- 
tion is  quite  unwarrantable.  But  for  the  most  part,  the 
stories  of  supposed  miracle  are  easily  explicable,  and,  when 
allowance  is  made   for   the   credulity  of  an  ignorant   age, 


Appendix  to  Lecture  VI  285 

cannot  be  considered  to  be  outside  the  range  of  common 
experience.  And  over  the  whole  tale  lies  the  stamp  of 
a  beautiful  life,  with  its  compelling  influence  of  goodness 
and  purity. 

But  as  time  went  on  the  stories  of  miracles  assumed 
a  different  form,  both  when  told  by  contemporaries  of  the 
saints,  who  professed  to  speak  from  their  own  knowledge 
and  examination  of  evidence,  and  when  discovered  in  later 
years  and  produced  as  witness  to  the  sanctity  of  men  long 
since  passed  away.  The  instances  of  S.  John  of  Beverley, 
S.  William  of  Norwich,  and  S.  Swithun  of  Winchester  may 
illustrate  these  points. 

(i)  Fulcard  wrote  for  Ealdred,  the  English  Archbishop 
of  York,  the  life  of  S.  John,  the  founder  of  Beverley  Minster. 
A  quaint  piece  of  work  are  his  thirteen  chapters.  That  the 
saint  was  at  one  time  Bishop  of  Hexham,  and  that  he  was 
a  missionary,  is  almost  all  that  he  knows  of  him ;  and 
everything  he  has  to  tell,  except  the  miracles,  comes  from 
Bede.  But  these  are  many  of  them  connected  with  wine, 
whether  the  cup  which  the  man  received  whom  S.  John 
healed  of  grievous  sickness,  or  the  inexhaustible  jar  which 
he  gave,  to  the  astonishment  of  King  Osred,  or  the  broken 
flask  which  he  restored  whole  when  the  venerable  man 
drank  in  the  cellar  at  Beverley  at  the  Abbot's  request  after 
a  bath.i  Other  writers  give  miracles  of  a  more  extended,  or 
beneficent  scope  to  the  "  second  Elijah  "i-^'  he  appears  as  a 
healer  of  sickness,  the  saviour  of  travellers  in  danger  of 
shipwreck,  as  one  who  banishes  the  passion  of  love  from 
the  breast  of  a  scholar  of  music, ^  and  cures  the  deaf 
and  dumb.  When  Archbishop  Gerard  (i  100- 11 09)  visited 
Beverley  indeed,  and  the  merits  of  S.  John  healed  one  of 
his  servants  during  mass,  he  alluded  to  it  with  much  im- 

^  Fulcard,  Vita  S.  Joh.  in  Hist.  York,  i.  251.  "  Porrigit  ilico 
inclytus  pnesul  calicem  vini,  jubetque  sitibundum  suum  ex  eo 
refocillaie." 

-  Hist.   York^  i.  271. 

2  Ibid.,  i.  281,  282. 


286  The  English  Saints 

pressiveness  in  his  serinon,  till  a  certain  Englishman,  wearied 
with  the  discourse,  arose  and  interrupted  it.  He  addressed 
the  Archbishop  and  told  him  not  to  think  that  there  was 
any  wonder  at  such  a  miracle,  for  the  like  were  common  at 
Beverley  every  year,  and  that  therefore  he  had  better  not 
meddle  with  the  privileges  of  a  Church  which  was  so 
highly  honoured.  However  Gerard  though  warned  paid 
no  heed  ;  but  the  young  man  who  was  healed  would  not 
depart  from  the  monastery,  and  so  became  a  baker  and 
married  a  wife  and  lived  hard  by  the  cemetery,  where  the 
recorder  of  these  miracles  when  he  was  a  boy  saw  him 
with  his  own  eyes.^  The  miracles  of  S.  John  of  Beverley 
are  indeed  characteristically  rich  in  human  interest.  He 
took  pains  to  appear  in  a  dream  to  a  naughty  boy  named 
William  Paternoster  (who  had  become  dumb  as  a  punish- 
ment for  walking  alone  with  a  little  girl  and  not  enjoying 
athletic  sports,  and  to  recover  him),  whereupon  he  learned 
letters  and  came  to  speak  both  English  and  French.-  Two 
women  from  Lindsey,  one  of  them  sent  by  "  the  wise 
women,"  a  madman  from  Kesteven  and  many  sufferers  with 
swollen  arms  and  feet,  and  beasts  with  cattle  plague  and  a 
boy  who  fell  from  a  roof  where  he  had  no  business  to  be, 
watching  a  miracle  play,  were  all  recovered  by  his  aid :  and 
when  a  priest  named  Ingulf  was  saying  the  night  hours  and 
his  candle  went  out  S.  John  put  a  new  one,  and  lighted  it, 
in  his  hands. 

(2)  The  miracles  at  the  shrine  of  S.  William  of  Norwich  or 
connected  with  his  fame  are  typical.  They  rarely  suggest 
fraud  and  they  never  demand  for  their  explanation  a  super- 
natural intervention.  The  ailments  which  are  cured  are 
either  intermittent,  such  as  toothache,  or  such  as  may  yield 
to  treatment,  such  as  blindness  or  deafness,  nervous  dis- 
orders, in  the  cure  of  which  faith  plays  so  large  a  part.  In 
the  telling  of  them  by  Thomas  of  Monmouth  there  is  much 
homely  human  nature.    A  priest  tries  to  traffic  in  the  saint's 

'  Ni'st.  York,  i.  299,  300. 
-  IbuL,x>\x  311,312. 


Appendix  to  Lecture  VI  287 

holiness  and  obtain  news  for  himself  thereon  ;  his  avarice  is 
fitly  punished.  There  are  not  enough  candles  to  honour  the 
saint :  and  there  is  a  timely  and  very  judicious  benefaction. 
A  young  man  who  sleeps  with  his  mouth  open  swallows  a 
viper,  and  the  results  are  very  inconvenient,  until  some 
scrapings  of  the  saint's  tomb,  taken  in  holy  water,  afford 
relief,  by  acting  as  an  emetic.  A  black  pig  enters  the 
chapter-house  by  night  and  attacks  a  sleeping  monk,  who 
was  supposed  to  watch  by  the  tomb  :  it  is  believed  by  some 
to  be  the  devil  in  disguise.  These  and  such  like  tales  were 
not  taken  too  seriously  even  when  they  were  written. 

(3)  The  next  case  is  a  diflferent  one.  Of  the  holy  life  of 
the  famous  S.  Swithun^  there  is  no  contemporary  record  in 
detail.  He  was  the  trusted  adviser  of  Ecgbert  who  knit 
England  together  under  Wessex,  and  he  was  the  tutor  of  his 
son.     He  lived  as  a  good  Bishop,  a  church  builder,  a  feaster 

^  See  Nova  Legenda,  ii.  358  sqq.^  for  the  best  life,  with  list  of 
sources.  Analecta  Bollandiana,  torn,  iv.,  p.  367  :  Sancti  Swithuni, 
Wintonensis  Episcopi  Tra7islatio  el  Miraciila^  auctore  Lantfredo 
Moiiacho  Winiojiiensi  ex  cod.  olim  Gejneticensi,  jam  Rotomagensi 
nunc prifnum  edidit  E.  P.  Saavage,  sacerdos  Rotonagensis.  Tom.  v. 
Hymni  paracterici  tres  in  laiidem  S.  Swithuni,  Wintoniensis 
Episcvpi.  Ed.  E.  P.  Sativage, presbytero  Rotomagense.  i.  Plymniis 
ad  laudeni  smi.  pont.  S.  Swithuni  eleganti  urbaititate  metricce  artis 
perite  coinpositus.  This  contains  nothing  noteworthy  ;  it  is  a  highly 
artificial  acrostic,  ii.  Incipit  hymnus  in  honore  S.  Patris  et  gloriosi 
pont.  Swithuni.,  elegiaco  et  paracterico  carmine  per  alphabetum 
compositus.  This  is  much  the  same  as  above.  These  are  the  two 
last  strophes  of  the  "  Amen  "  : 

E  vetierande  Pater  !  modicum  jam  claudimus  ymnu 

Teque  omnes  petimus,  e  venerande  Pater  ! 
Nos  iugiter  refove.,  nos  semper  ab  hoste  tuere, 
Et  patrio  afifectu,  Nos  iugiter  refove. 
iii.  Elogium  et paractericus  de  S.  Swithuno  hymnus.     Ex  codice 
Alenconiensi  14.     Begins  at  E  .  .  .  . 

Gentibus  AngUgenis  solennia  festa  recurrunt 
Et  renovant  iubitu,  Gentibus  AngUgenis. 


288  Thi-:  English  Saints 

with  the  poor  not  the  rich,  ever  with  open  mouth  tliat  he 
might  invite  sinners  to  repentance.  I  kit  his  fame  is  due 
ahiiost  entirely  to  his  translation  and  the  miracles  that 
gathered  round  his  shrine. ^  In  his  case  the  miracles  may  be 
regarded  as  a  revelation  of  his  character  as  it  lingered  in 
popular  reverence.  In  ^Elfric's  Lives-  the  saint  appears  in  a 
vision  to  a  certain  smith,  three  years  before  his  translation. 
He  inquires  from  this  man  of  a  certain  priest  Eadsige  living 
at  Winchelcombe  who  with  others  had  been  expelled  by 
.^thelwold  from  the  old  monastery  for  misconduct.  He 
tells  Eadsige  in  a  message  to  go  to  ^thelwold,  to  tell  him 
to  open  his  grave  and  bring  the  bones  into  the  church.  He 
promises  that  in  his  tomb  they  will  find  a  treasure  to  which 
gold  is  nothing.  The  smith  afraid  of  people  thinking  him 
a  liar  kept  silence  and  the  saint  appeared  to  him  on  two 
other  occasions,  rebuking  him.  The  smith  at  last  went  to 
the  tomb  to  prove  for  himself  the  truth  of  the  vision.  He 
took  the  ring  of  the  lid  of  the  tomb,  pulled  it,  and  it  came 
clean  out  of  the  stone  as  the  Saint  had  foretold.  Going 
away  thoroughly  convinced  he  met  a  serf  of  Eadsige's  who 
was  entrusted  with  the  message.  Within  two  years 
Eadsige  entered  a  monastery  and  remained  there  until  his 
death. 

A  hump-backed  churl  had  a  dream  in  which  it  was 
revealed  that  Swithun  could  heal  him.  He  set  off  in  the 
morning  to  Winchester  with  his  crutches  and  prayed  at  the 
Saint's  tomb  and  was  immediately  healed.  The  monks, 
who  at  that  time  had  no  knowledge  of  the  Saint,  attributed 
the  cure  to  some  other  saint,  "  but  the  churl  said  that 
Swithun  had  healed  him,  because  he  himself  knew  the  most 
certainly  about  the  matter." 

Another  man  with  a  strange  disease  in  his  eyes  and 
tongue  was  carried  to  Winchester  where  his  friends  kept 
a  vigil  at  S.  Swithun's  tomb.     The  sick  man  also  watched 

'  Cf.  Hunt,  liih^lislt  C/iiin/i,  597-1066,  p.  367. 

^  E.  E.  Text  Soc,  no.  \.\i.,  p.  441,  edited  by  Skeut. 


Appendix  to  Lecture  VI  289 

and  towards  morning  fell  asleep.  He  was  awakened  by 
a  feeling  as  if  someone  was  trying  to  pull  his  shoe  off,  and 
found  himself  healed.  The  shoe  was  nowhere  to  be  found. 
In  all  eight  sick  men  were  healed  by  S.  Swithun  before  his 
translation. 

After  this  King  Eadgar  ordered  Bishop  ^Ethelwold  to 
proceed  with  the  translation  and  the  body  of  the  Saint 
was  carried  into  the  church.  Many  miracles  of  healing 
followed  and  the  burial-ground  around  the  church  was 
crowded  with  sick  people  waiting  their  turn  to  be  laid,  at 
the  tomb. 

In  those  days  there  were  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  three 
women,  one  blind  from  her  birth  and  the  other  two  for  the 
space  of  nine  years.  They  had  a  dumb  boy  for  guide  and 
all  four  went  on  pilgrimage  to  the  tomb.  They  watched 
for  one  night  and  were  all  healed. 

A  bondwoman  condemned  to  be  flogged  was  delivered  by 
S.  Swithun  and  set  free  by  her  master  in  honour  of  the 
Saint. 

A  thegn  crippled  by  paralysis  desired  to  be  carried  to 
Winchester  for  the  cure  and  was  healed  before  he  started. 

Twenty-five  men,  blind,  halt,  deaf  and  dumb,  were  healed 
in  one  day. 

A  thegn  suddenly  stricken  with  blindness  lived  at  Rome 
four  years  to  pray  for  his  cure  from  the  Apostles.  Hearing 
of  S.  Swithun  he  returned  to  Winchester  in  haste  and  was 
cured. 

A  blind  man,  forsaken  by  his  guide  in  a  quarrel,  invoked 
S.  Swithun  and  was  able  to  get  home  without  a  guide,  being 
cured  of  his  malady. 

^Ethelwold  ordered  Te  Deum  to  be  sung  at  every  cure. 
The  monks  grew  tired  of  having  to  get  up  three  or  four 
times  in  a  night  and  left  it  off  when  the  Bishop  was  busy 
with  the  king.  A  good  man  had  a  vision  of  the  Saint  who 
bade  him  go  to  the  monks  and  rebuke  them  for  their  sloth, 
telling  them  that  if  Te  Deiim  were  not  sung  the  miracles 
would  cease.     The  good  man  went  to  ^thelwold  who  at 

19 


290  Thic  English  Saints 

once  ordered  the  monks  to  do  what  they  were  told  and  sing 
Te  Dcuin.  This  custom  was  in  use  in  the  preacher's  time 
and  he  notes  that  he  and  his  hearers  had  not  seldom  sung 
this  hymn  with  the  monks  when  a  miracle  had  been  per- 
formed. A  certain  man  wrongly  accused  of  theft  had  his 
eyes  put  out  and  his  ears  cut  off :  he  Avas  made  whole  at 
S.  Swithun's  tomb.  On  this  says  JEUric  "  Nevertheless  it 
is  to  wit  we  must  not  pray  to  God's  Saints  as  to  God  Him- 
self, because  He  alone  is  God,  and  above  all  things  ;  but  we 
should  truly  pray  the  Saints  to  intercede  for  us  with  the 
All-ruling  God,  who  is  their  Lord,  that  He  may  help  us." 
During  a  vigil  of  the  dead  (a  "lyke-wake")  a  man  blas- 
phemed and  joked,  saying  he  was  Swithun.  He  was  sud- 
denly struck  down  in  a  trance  and  only  recovered  when  laid 
at  the  Saint's  tomb. 

A  hundred  and  twenty  men  with  various  diseases  were 
all  healed  within  three  weeks. 

A  thegn's  servant  with  a  broken  leg  is  healed  by  the 
prayer  of  the  Saint.  An  old  thegn  of  the  Wight  bedridden 
for  nine  years  was  carried  in  a  dream  by  two  saints  to  a 
church  in  which  S.  Swithun  stood  as  if  about  to  say  Mass. 
After  enjoining  upon  him  the  law  of  charity  the  Saint 
promises  that  if  he  fulfils  it  he  will  be  healed.  The  sick 
man  asks  the  Saint's  name  and  is  bidden  go  to  Winchester 
to  learn  it.  On  awaking  his  wife  tells  him  the  Saint  was 
Swithun  and  he  is  carried  into  a  church  and  prays  for  his 
healing  and  is  cured.  He  went  to  Winchester  and  reported 
his  cure  to  ^thelwold  and  "  Landferth  the  foreigner" 
set  it  down  in  Latin.  The  church  was  hung  round  with 
crutches,  etc.,  left  by  cripples,  and  half  of  them  could  not 
be  put  up,  so  many  they  were. 

These  cases,  selected  from  different  periods  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  are  typical  of  the  whole  collection  of  medieval 
miracles. 

Is  it  possible  to  make  any  classification  of  the  miracles  ? 
Any  such,  so  far  as  the  present  writer's  knowledge  goes,  can 
only  be  tentative  and  inexact.     But  it  may  be  said  in  the 


Appendix  to  Lecture  VI  291 

first  place  that  they  all  fall  into  one  of  two  classes  :  they 
are  either  miracles  of  vengeance  or  miracles  of  compassion. 
I.  The  first  class  is  by  far  the  smaller.  The  evidence 
for  it  is  of  course  always  mere  conjecture  or  unwarrantable 
inference.  It  is  conspicuous  in  the  stories  of  the  Welsh 
saints.  Cedoc  of  Llancarfan  by  his  cursing  caused  the  death 
by  fire  or  water  of  those  who  had  offended  him  even  in  the 
smallest  matters  (see  his  life  in  Rees,  Camhro -British  Saints). 
Parallel  to  the  cursings  are  cases  of  the  old  Celtic  custom 
of  "fasting  against"  a  person.  The  Irish  stories  are 
equally  full  of  cursing  :  as  late  as  the  seventh  century  it 
seems  to  have  been  a  common  practice  to  reduce  a  sinner 
or  even  a  saint  to  submission  by  the  curses  of  a  holy  man 
(see  Fragmentary  Annals  in  Silva  Gadelica,  ii.  436  ;  and  cf. 
Revue  celtiqite,  xiv.  16,  22).  S.  Columba  not  infrequently 
avenged  wrongs  by  this  method.  S.  Hilda  in  a  later 
legend  is  said  to  have  driven  serpents  over  the  cliffs  of 
Whitby — as  is  said  in  different  places  of  many  saints — but 
this  hardly  falls  within  the  category.  It  is  rather  an 
attempted  explanation  of  the  existence  of  fossil  ammonites. 
But  there  could  be  no  better  example  than  the  case 
of  S.  Edmund  (see  Liebermann,  Hevemanni  Miracula  S. 
Eadmimdi,  and  Martene  and  Durand,  Veteruni  Scriptorum  .  .  . 
ampl.  collectio,  VI.).  He  is  represented  as  punishing  offences 
against  his  reputation  or  temporalities,  often  quite  dispro- 
portionately, with  death  (§  6),  sickness  (^^  15,  29,  31,  36, 
41),  loss  of  goods  (§§  11,46). 

§  6  relates  the  death  of  King  Swegen  by  a  spear-thrust 
from  S.  Edmund  the  same  night  after  he  had  spurned  the 
emissary  of  the  saint  who  came  to  beg  remittance  of  tribute. 
The  same  story  is  in  Florence  of  Worcester  anno  1014, 
William  of  Malmesbury,  Orderic,  and  Snorri.  Again,  a 
noble  Dane  peeps  under  the  pall  covering  the  saint's  body 
and  is  blinded.  He  repents  and  gives  his  two  golden  arm- 
rings  to  the  saint,  and  is  restored  to  sight  (§  15). 

§  29.  Liebermann,  p.  242.  Abbot  Leofstan  gets  stiffened 
hands  for  meddling  with  the  saint's  body  out  of  curiosity. 

ig — 2 


2g2  The  English  Saints 

This  story  occurs  also  in  William  of  Malmesbury,  Gesta 
Pontif.,  p.  156;  and  in  Wibert  of  Nogent,  De  pignovihns 
Sanctorum,  p.  337. 

§  31.  Liebermann,  pp.  242-244.  Osgod  Clapa  comes 
into  the  church  at  Bury  in  all  the  splendour  of  Danish 
armour  and  then,  struck  by  the  power  of  the  saint,  falls 
to  the  ground  raving.  He  promises  never  again  to  do 
harm  to  the  monastery  and  then  he  is  restored,  but  his 
hands  remain  weak  (above,  p.  147). 

§  36.  Liebermann,  pp.  247,  248.  One  of  William  I.'s 
Norman  knights  seizes  an  abbey  manor,  saying  it  will 
be  more  useful  to  a  king's  servant  than  to  the  sleeping 
S.  Edmund.  He  is  punished  with  pains  in  the  head  and  gets 
a  white  spot  on  the  pupil  of  his  eye.  His  expiatory  wax 
candle  breaks  into  nine  pieces,  because  it  was  not  sent  with 
true  repentance.  ("  Quem  ultio  divina  post  paucos  dies 
cefalargica  passione  percussit.") 

§§  4],  42.  Liebermann,  pp.  251-254.  Hermann  was  an  eye 
witness  in  this  case.  Arfast,  bishop  of  East  Anglia,  who 
had  evil  designs  against  the  abbey,  e.g.,  had  confiscated  the 
abbot's  crozier,  is  blinded  by  a  bough  while  riding  in  the 
forest.  Not  till  he  prays  to  S.  Edmund  for  forgiveness 
is  it  possible  for  Abbat  Baldwin  to  heal  him.  He  retains 
traces  of  the  injury,  repents,  and  preaches  on  the  miracle  on 
S.  Edmund's  day. 

§  II.  Martfene,  829  B.  A  priest  who  was  afraid  to  shelter 
the  man  who  was  carrying  about  the  saint's  body  to  shield 
it  from  the  ravaging  Danes  [a.d.  ioio],  is  punished  with 
the  loss  of  his  house  by  fire.  A  number  of  other  cases  are 
collected  by  C.  A.  Bernoulli,  op.  cit. 

But,  though  it  would  be  possible  to  multiply  instances  of 
this  kind,  they  form  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  recorded 
cases  of  miracle.  It  is  to  be  observed  also  that  the  cases 
are  almost  without  exception  attributed  to  the  influence  of 
the  saint  after  his  death.  They  are  of  course  in  most  instances 
mere  coincidences,  as  for  example  the  tales  of  S.  Thomas 
killing  a  cow  and  paralysing  a  naughty  boy. 


Appendix  to  Lecture  VI  293 

II.  Acts  of  Compassion.  Of  these  four  classes  (though 
this  may  be  to  some  extent  a  cross-division)  may  easily  be 
traced. 

1.  The  directly  imitative  (see  above,  p.  283).  To  this 
class  belong  the  stories  of  raising  from  the  dead,  which  are 
not  very  common,  and  which  the  chroniclers  generally 
regard  with  suspicion ;  and  also  a  number  of  cases  of 
heaUng,  notably,  for  example,  in  the  instance  of  S.  Thomas 
of  Canterbury,  based  upon  the  Gospels  or  the  Acts. 

2.  Dreams.  Of  these  there  are  several  told  of  S.  Dun- 
stan  ;  there  is  the  vision  told  by  Helias  to  Eadmer  of 
S.  Dunstan  and  S.  Anselm  ;  there  is  the  appearance  of 
S.  Oswald  to  King  Alfred,  and  there  are  many  like  occur- 
rences. Here  again  the  records  of  the  miracles  of  S.  Thomas 
of  Canterbury  and  of  S.  Edmund  supply  many  instances. 
Thus,  to  take  an  example  from  the  latter  :  §  54.  A  Norman 
knight,  with  a  head  only  for  fighting  and  such  worldly 
matters,  dreams  :  "  Somniat  quod  equitans  fugam  iniat,  et 
sanctus  martyr  [Eadmundus]  eques  insequutor  fiat  ejus 
armatus.  Lancea  dorso  deorsum  affixa,  donee,  ab  equo 
resupinans  eum  supra  sepem,  velut  miles  ei  desuper  intenta- 
verit  mortem.  Sicque,  veluti  dabat  visio  sibi,  resupinus 
jacens  in  sepe  plena  florum  amoenitate,  sancto  compugione 
superasstante,  precatur  miser  veniam.  .  .  ."  He  ivas 
pardoned,  and  became  a  monk.  There  are  very  many 
stories  like  this.  These  are  for  the  most  part  purely 
subjective  processes.  Sometimes  they  take  the  form, 
familiar  to  modern  psychical  research,  of  "  second  sight  "; 
but  for  the  most  part  they  are  quite  dream-like  :  figures 
dissolve  into  each  other,  etc.  Says  Dr.  Liebermann,  men 
were  more  schooled  to  believe  than  to  think,  and  were 
slaves  of  nature  and  imagination.  The  excitement  can 
often  be  given  a  cause  :  raging  of  the  elements,  long  fasting, 
night  watching  in  churches  filled  with  incense-smoke,  rude 
pictures,  and  mysterious  dim  candle-light. 

3.  Coincidences.  This  accounts  for  a  very  large  number 
of  the  medieval  miracles.     The  more  exact  the  coincidence. 


294  TuK  English  Saints 

the  more  unlikely  is  the  case.  There  is  only  one  such  in 
Hermann's  Mivaciila  S.  Edmundi,  viz.,  about  Swegen's  death, 
and  for  that  the  writer  was  dependent  on  tradition.  yEthel- 
win  (^  6)  is  told  in  a  vision  he  will  hear  something  pleasant 
(gratissima)  about  Swegen  ;  a  dying  man  (.§  7)  is  told  that 
S.  Edmund's  spear-thrust  killed  Swegen.  Men  who  were 
present  speak  only  of  a  spear-thrust.  A  more  familiar 
case  is  the  capture  of  William  the  Lion  at  Alnwick  after 
Henry  H.'s  humiliation  at  the  tomb  of  S.  Thomas  ;  and 
these  events  were  soon  declared  to  have  happened  simul- 
taneously, in  order  to  enforce  the  power  of  the  martyr  (see 
William  of  Newburgh,  i.  187,  Gervase  of  Canterbury, 
i.  248).  There  are  frequent  cases  of  ordinary  treatment 
effecting  cures,  or  natural  processes  being  at  work,  when 
a  miracle  is  sought  at  the  same  time,  and  is  believed  to 
have  been  worked.  This  is  largely  the  case  with  the  tales 
of  recovery  from  blindness.  Thus  natural  phenomena  in 
the  miracles  are  not  at  all  unusual :  the  weather  changes, 
a  house  burns,  a  candle  breaks,  a  bough  hits  a  man's  eye, 
stolen  goods  lost  at  harbour  are  found  in  the  city  (but 
cf.  above,  pp.  186,  281-293).  Miracles  of  healing  are  not 
uncommonly  of  this  order,  but  the  larger  number  are 
due  to 

4.  Natural  causes.  The  large  majority  of  these  are 
cures  of  nervous  diseases,  which  are  now  known  to  be 
often  capable  of  cure  by  abrupt  methods  or  by  what  is 
termed  "  faith-healing."  This  is  by  far  the  largest  class 
of  medieval  miracles.  Thus  in  regard  to  the  Becket 
miracles.  Dr.  E.  A.  Abbott  (5.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  his 
Death  and  Miracles)  rightly  says  :  "  The  diseases  healed  by 
them  were  for  the  most  part  (as  might  have  been  antici- 
pated) nervous  disorders,  such  as  might  be  cured  by  a 
strong  emotional  shock.  In  some  cases  Benedict  frankly 
tells  us  that  the  cure  was  not  at  first  perfect ;  in  others 
that  it  was  followed  by  relapse.  In  one  case  he  informs  us 
that  the  reputed  water  of  S.  Thomas  was  not  S.  Thomas's 
at  all.     It  was  a  fraudulent  imitation  ;  yet  it  performed  the 


Appendix  to  Lecture  VI  295 

desired  cure."  Similar  to  this  was  the  work  of  S.  Anselm's 
girdle  (see  Eadmer,  Miv.  S.  Anselmi,  in  Liebermann's 
Ungedruckte  Geschichtsquellen),  though  in  some  of  the  instances 
given  its  use  as  a  tight  bandage  may  have  been  really 
effective.  In  many  of  the  cures  described  by  medieval 
writers  as  miraculous  the  process  took  a  long  time,  nor  was 
the  use  of  ordinary  medicines  regarded  as  at  all  incom- 
patible {cf.  Mir.  S.  Ed  in.,  ^  42).  Often  recovery  was  not 
complete.  This  class  is  obviously  capable  of  so  large  an 
extension  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  do  more  than  briefly 
mention  it.  Every  medieval  saint's  life  will  afford  many 
instances.  Examples  might  be  taken  from  the  lives  of 
S.  Edmund  of  Abingdon  (on  which  it  is  interesting  to  read 
Dr.  W.  W.  Wallace)  and  of  S.  Hugh  of  Lincoln  (on  which 
cf.  G.  G.  Perry  with  H.  Thurston).  See  e.g.,  Magna  Vita 
S.  Hiigonis,  pp.  97,  241,  245,  361,  362. 

Another  division  of  medieval  miracles  would  be  : 

1.  Those  wrought  by  a  saint  in  his  lifetime. 

2.  Those  wrought  by  relics  of  him. 

3.  Those  given  in  answer  to  prayer  and  without  any 
visible  intervention  of  the  saint  or  recourse  to  relics  of  him. 

It  is  to  a  great  extent  but  not  quite  universally  true,  as 
Dr.  Liebermann  {Mivacula  S.  Edm.,  p.  218)  asserts,  that  the 
subjects  of  miracles  are  either  (i)  persons  on  whom  the 
faithful  already  expect  the  saint  to  operate,  or  (2)  persons 
who  have  done  something  which  the  faithful  aftcvwavds 
recognize  as  a  cause  of  the  saint's  interference. 

There  must  always  be  some  relation  established  with  the 
saint  before  he  takes  the  initiative.  If  this  means  no  more 
than  that  the  saint  is  presumed  to  have  some  knowledge  of 
the  person  who  is  benefited  through  him  it  is  obvious. 
Prayer  on  the  one  hand,  a  crime  on  the  other,  introduces 
the  intervention  of  the  saint.  The  power  exercised  through 
the  saint  does  act  in  a  purely  arbitrary  way,  with  no  con- 
nection between  subject  and  object.  It  must  have  a  cause. 
But  it  would  not  be  safe  to  assert  that  the  medieval  writers 
believed  always  in  a  conscious  relation  between  the  subject 


296  The  English  Saints 

of  the  miracle  and  the  saint  with  whom  it  was  associated : 
though  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  they  certainly  did. 

In  regard  to  the  miracles  of  S.  Edmund  Dr.  Liebermann 
concludes  thus  (p.  222) :  *'  As  a  matter  of  fact  Hermann's 
miracles  are  true  accounts  of  occurrences  some  of  which  are 
ordinary,  others  unusual  in  themselves,  but  which  without 
exception  do  not  constitute  marvels  in  our  sense,  while  some 
of  them  perhaps  have  only  this  connexion  with  S.  Edmund, 
that  they  were  produced  by  faith  in  him."  This  conclusion 
is  valid  over  a  large  part  of  the  area  of  medieval  miracles. 
A  detailed  examination  of  these  has  a  result  which  can 
hardly  be  denied.  It  establishes,  what  every  student  of 
the  literature  must  have  long  decided  for  himself,  that 
while  there  was,  as  time  went  on,  much  imposture  and 
much  confusion,  and  much  record  without  evidence,  and 
much  healing  that  is  easily  explained  on  purely  natural 
grounds,  there  still  remain  cases  which  may  be  conveniently 
treated  as  due  to  "  faith "  in  some  inexplicable  way,  but 
which  to  the  Christian  seem  to  involve  an  obvious  relation 
to  the  Divine  Power  acting  in  a  manner  which  is  beyond 
ordinary  human  experience.  Within  the  limits  of  our 
present  knowledge  it  is  impossible  to  do  more  than  to 
admit  that  there  were  signs  due  to  "the  power  of  God." 
To  call  these  miracles  or  to  describe  them  as  "super- 
natural "  is  hardly  more  than  a  tentative  suggestion. 
"  Persons'  knowledge  of  what  is  natural  will  be  enlarged 
in  proportion  to  their  greater  knowledge  of  the  works  of 
God  and  the  dispensations  of  His  Providence,"  says 
Butler  :  and  it  is  obvious  that  "  under  our  present  life- 
dispensation,  things  that  warrant  or  require  the  intro- 
duction of  the  supernatural  in  order  to  present  them  even 
as  conceivable,  in  one  given  state  of  our  knowledge,  may 
in  another  state  of  our  knowledge  be  found  to  fall  within 
the  range  of  ordinary  human  experience "  (Gladstone, 
Studies  Subsidiary  to  the  Works  of  Bishop  Butler,  p.  313). 

Thus  the  question  of  medieval  miracles  is  in  the  first 
place  one  of  evidence :  it   affords  an  interesting  study   of 


Appendix  to  Lecture  VI  297 

medieval  thought,  notably  in  regard  to  the  medieval  notion 
of  what  constitutes  proof;  and  it  is  thus  a  matter  of  interest 
and  importance  to  historical  students.  There  is  of  course 
every  difference  in  the  world  between  the  evidence  for 
different  miracles.  It  is  true  that  "  in  every  age,  including 
our  own,  there  are  a  great  number  of  people  whose  super- 
stition, or  prejudice,  or  careless  untruthfulness,  is  so  great 
that  we  could  never  rely  on  their  evidence  for  any  ex- 
ceptional event,  where  their  interests  were  enlisted  or  their 
passions  excited"  (Gore,  Bampton  Lectures,  1891,  p.  74). 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  I  should  not  be  incHned  to  endorse 
the  preceding  statement  of  the  same  eminent  writer,  that 
"  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  there  are  certain  ages  when 
belief  is  so  utterly  uncritical  that  it  does  not  seem  as  if 
they  could  under  any  circumstances  afford  us  satisfactory 
evidence  of  miraculous  occurrences "  {ibid.) :  nor  is  it 
possible  to  make  an  a  priori  distinction  between  the  miracles 
of  the  New  Testament  and  those  of  the  Christian  Church. 

And  thus,  in  the  second  place,  the  question  ultimately 
merges  in  the  general  discussion,  so  often  otiose  and  incon- 
conclusive,  of  the  miraculous  in  general.  This  must  be 
dealt  with  on  philosophical  as  well  as  on  historical 
principles  :  and  the  contribution  which  a  study  of  medieval 
miracles  makes  to  the  discussion  is  simply  the  fact  that, 
after  all  allowances  are  made  for  imposture  and  for  natural 
explanations,  there  still  remain  events  which  cannot  be 
explained,  or  explained  away,  by  our  present  knowledge  of 
so-called  natural  causes. 

We  seem  to  be  a  long  way  from  any  conclusion  of  the 
whole  matter  :  it  may  be  that  we  are  nearer  than  we  think. 
Towards  this  I  do  not  fancy  that  these  scattered  notes 
are  of  the  smallest  assistance.  But  the  mention  of  the  facts 
was  a  necessary  part  of  any  treatment,  however  meagre,  of 
the  lives  of  the  saints  and  of  their  influence  upon  national 
character  and  national  ideals.  On  the  main  question  raised 
by  these  notes  what  we  need  is  observation  at  least  as 
much  as  criticism  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  it  is  through  the 


298  The  English  Saints 

former  that  explanation  will  at  last  be  reached.  But  when 
it  is  reached,  or  is  approached,  it  will  certainly  be  approached 
through  a  consideration  of  the  phenomena  of  Personality 
and  Will  {cf.  Dr.  Sanday's  striking  paper  at  the  Church 
Congress  1902).  Of  the  results  of  "  the  contact  of 
personalities  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God  with  the  con- 
ditions of  the  outer  world "  we  have  still  very  much, 
one  is  tempted  to  say  almost  everything,  to  learn.  A  step 
towards  the  learning  will  certainly  be  the  full  examination 
of  the  "  miracles  "  ascribed  to  the  medieval  saints. 


LECTURE  VII 
WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  AMONG  THE  SAINTS. 

"  The  elect  lady  and  her  children  whom  I  love  in  the  truth." — 
2  S.  John  i.  i. 

So  S.  John  wrote,  with  the  wonderful  freedom  that  came 
through  the  faith  of  Christ.  It  is  a  commonplace  of 
history  that  Christianity  changed,  and  changes,  every- 
where, the  position  of  women.  It  is  the  experience 
which  perhaps  more  than  anything  else  forces  itself,  and 
its  necessary  inferences,  upon  the  attention  of  those 
who  seriously  watch  the  progress  of  missions  to-day. 
And  our  experience  is  exactly  what  the  experience  of  our 
forefathers  was.^     The  law  of  Christ  means  the  freedom 

'  "  I  think  we  are  getting  into  a  milk-and-water  view  of  Heathen- 
ism, not  of  African  Heathenism  alone,  but  of  Buddhism,  Hinduism, 
and  Mohammedanism  also,  which  prevail  in  Asia.  Just  one  or 
two  remarks  as  to  what  these  false  faiths  do.  They  degrade 
women  with  an  infinite  degradation.  I  have  lived  in  zenanas  and 
harems,  and  have  seen  the  daily  life  of  the  secluded  women,  and  I 
can  speak  from  bitter  experience  of  what  their  lives  are — the 
intellect  dwarfed,  so  that  the  woman  of  twenty  or  thirty  years  of 
age  is  more  like  a  child  of  eight  intellectually ;  while  all  the  worst 
passions  of  human  nature  are  stimulated  and  developed  in  a  fearful 
degree  :  jealousy,  envy,  murderous  hate,  intrigue,  running  to  such 
an  extent  that  in   some   countries    I   ha\e   hardly  ever  been  in  a 

[  299  J 


300  The  English  Saints 

of  woman.  "  The  Gospel  was — in  a  way  in  which  no 
rcHj^Mon,  nothing  which  spoke  of  the  unseen  and  the 
eternal,  ever  had  been  or  could  be — a  religion  of  the 
affections,  a  religion  of  sympathy."^ 

It  seemed  natural  to  the  Teutonic  races  to  respect 
womanhood,  but  how  immeasurably  was  this  respect 
transfigured  by  the  teaching  of  the  Gospel  of  the 
Virgin's  Son !  Long  before  the  reverence  paid  to  His 
mother  grew  till  it  seemed  to  threaten  the  homage 
which  is  due  to  God  alone,  the  Church  had  helped 
men  to  learn  how  high  and  holy  was  the  work  of  women 
in  the  conversion  of  the  world. 

Our  race  is  generally  believed  to  set  a  special  value 
on  virtues  which  owe  much  in  their  action  to  the  gentle 
determination  of  noble  women.  Truth  is  among  them, 
and  most  conspicuously  purity.  Such  were  the  virtues, 
men  seemed  to  think,  naturally  at  home  in  the  Teu- 
tonic peoples,  which  Christianity  brought  out,  cherished, 
strengthened.  The  Christian  life  of  the  household,  the 
shelter  of  peace  and  love  and  holiness,  was  developed 
through  the  ministration  of  women.  While  the  warrior 
kings  gave  their  lives  for  their  faith,  and  the  monks 
were  restless  in  zeal  to  extend  its  borders,  women 
followed  them  everywhere,  to  make  their  work  firm  by 
the  influence  of  sympathy  and  love.  In  "the  age  of 
heroic  spiritual  ventures,"  when  there  were  saints  whose 


women's  house  or  near  a  women's  tent  without  being  asked  for 
drugs  with  which  to  disfigure  the  favourite  wife,  to  take  away  her 
life,  or  to  take  away  the  Hfe  of  the  favourite  wife's  infant  son.  This 
request  has  been  made  of  me  nearly  two  hundred  times." — Mrs. 
Bishop,  Nov.  I,  1893,  quoted  in  Mission  Field,  Feb.,  1894. 
1  R.  W.  Church,  The  Gifts  of  Civilizatio7t,  p.  204. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    301 

lives  are  quite  forgotten,  whose  names  linger  only  in 
some  bare  mention  in  a  chronicle  or  in  the  dedication 
of  an  ancient  church,  women  played  a  foremost  part. 

It  is  thus  that  a  book  of  late  medieval  hagiology 
introduces  the  lives  of  the  women  saints  of  "  our  contrie 
of  England  "  : 

"  Faith  decaying  in  the  worlde,"  says  the  writer,  who 
had  doubtless  in  his  mind  mau}^  noble  women  of  the  early 
Renaissance,  "and  Charitie  becoming  more  and  more 
colde,  Christians  commonlie  thereuppon  make  small  or 
verie  base  conceite  of  the  vertue  and  force  of  those 
vertues ;  obseruing  as  they  imagine  little  difference 
between  naturall  persuasions,  and  supernaturall  instruc- 
tion, between  sensuall,  worldlie,  and  humane  love,  and 
between  spirituall,  heavenlie  and  divine  Charitie.  Not- 
withstanding as  the  admirable  workes  and  benefits  of 
nature  are  many,  yet  not  observed  or  dulie  pondered, 
untill  by  some  speciall  art  and  Industrie  they  are  pro- 
posed and  proued,  as  the  nature  and  vertues  of  herbes 
are  not  knowne  but  by  physicions,  nor  the  precious  earth 
of  golde  and  siluer  mines,  but  by  the  art  of  goulde- 
fyning,  neither  the  secret  effect  and  rare  dignities  of 
stones  and  pearles  but  by  lapidaries,  and  so  in  other 
things.  In  like  sort  God's  grace  and  the  workes  thereof, 
the  force  of  faith,  the  glorie  of  God's  love,  are  not 
ordinarilie  considered  or  much  weighed,  bicause  the}^ 
are  usuallie  either  not  truly  present  but  imagined ;  or  if 
they  be  present,  they  are  so  confused  with  other  drosse  of 
sensuall  affections  and  naturall  imperfections,  as  that 
their  light  is  much  obscured,  their  operation  blunted 
and  dulled,  and  their  dignity  undiscerned.  Wherefore 
when  we  may  finde  them  pure  and  fined  from  such 


302 


The  English  Saints 


drossie  desires,  tried  and  cleanc  from  such  base  affec- 
tions, there  nnay  we  behold  the  beaiitie  and  ghtterin<^ 
of  those  Jewells,  the  worth  of  those  gcmmcs,  the  admir- 
able vertues  and  forces  of  their  power.  Then  also  may 
we  kno\\-  what  a  benefit  it  is  to  have  them,  what  riches 
to  possess  them,  what  comfort  to  enjoy  them.  For  this 
cause  hath  our  gracious  God  provided  some  speciall 
Saintes  in  all  sexes  and  estates,  in  all  professions  and 
callings,  whereby  all  other  of  the  same  condition  or 
qualitie,  may  learne  the  power  of  God's  grace,  the  force 
of  faith,  the  abilitie  of  charitie,  when  in  the  weakest 
sex,  the  youngest  years,  and  in  the  greatest  difficulties, 
as  of  kingly  honours,  of  princelie  pleasures,  of  roiall 
riches,  of  youthfull  concupiscence,  of  danger  of  dys- 
grace,  pouertie,  penurie,  and  death  it  self,  they  produce 
such  potent  effects,  as  to  glorie  in  worldlie  contempt,  to 
choose  pouertie  for  the  greatest  riches,  obedience  for 
Christ's  sake  aboue  any  authoritie  to  command,  spirituall 
solitarines  before  any  pleasant  temporall  companie, 
payne  for  pleasure,  fasting  for  feasting,  penance  for 
pastime."^ 

The  tales  that  the  writer  tells  truly  illustrate  his 
words  of  introduction.  Sacrifice,  devotion,  purity,  were 
taught  in  the  noble  lives  of  English  women  saints. 

To  the  dim  days  of  early  Christianity  in  I3ritain 
belong  not  a  few  tales  of  married  saints.  Already  the 
Christian  ideal  of  pure  wedded  life  N\as  known  and 
cherished.  It  may  be  that  it  is  such  a  memory  that 
lingers  in  the  dedication  of  the  splendid  church  of 
S.  Probus  and  S.  Grace  in  Cornwall,  where  two  heads 

'  The  Lh'cs  of  tJic  Women  Saints  of  liiigland,  pp.  i  sgq.  [See 
below.  1 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    303 

are  preserved,  as  perhaps  those  of  the  patrons,  by  the 
high  altar.^ 

Many  memories  there  were  too  of  saintly  virgins 
among  the  Celts,  Irish  and  Welsh.  Of  the  latter 
S.  Keyne  is  among  the  most  famous,  who  like  S.  Hilda 
turned  serpents  to  stone,  and  like  S.  Audrey  caused  a 
spring  to  burst  from  dry  ground.  She  lived  a  solitary 
and  mortified  life  at  Keynsham,  and  afterwards,  it  would 
appear,  in  Cornwall  :  and  when  she  was  near  to  die  she 
had  the  vision  of  an  angel  who  stripped  her  of  her  hair- 
cloth "  and  put  on  her  a  singular  white  vesture  and  a 
garment  of  scarlet  wrought  with  gold,"  and  said  to  her 
"  Be  in  readiness  to  go  with  us  that  we  may  bring  thee 
to  the  kingdom  of  thy  Father."- 

Of  some  of  these  and  their  contemporaries  more  may 
be  said.  S.  Eadburg  was  by  some  confused  with 
S.    Ethelburg,^    the    wife    of    Eadwine,    the    beloved 

1  It  is  quite  possible  that  S.  Probus  and  S.  Cirace  may  have 
been  the  founders  of  the  original  church  there.  Cf.  Borlase,  Age 
of  the  Saints.  An  eminent  but  in  this  matter  sceptical  Cornishman 
writes  to  me  June  12,  1902,  "We  know  nothing  ?ihow\.  SS.  Probus 
and  Grace.  I  always  suppose  they  were  Latinized  Britons  who 
evangelized  us  here  {before  Ur.  Benson)  '  antequam  rex  Edw.  in 
Cornubiam  venit.'  Borlase  in  his  book  is  inclined  to  suppose  it  to 
be  one  of  the  Breton  dedications — like  Cornelly— which  abound  on 
the  south  side  of  Cornwall.  I  hope  not :  if  so,  S.  Probus  was  never 
here.  And  then,  what  of  the  skulls  ?  Quod  est  absurdum."  See 
also  Miss  Arnold-Forster's  Studies  in  Church  Dedications,  ii.  542, 

543- 

"  For  S.  Keyne  we  have  the  life  in  the  Nova  Legenda,\.  103  sqq., 
and  Acta  SS.  Bolland.,  8  Oct.  iv.,  p.  276  :  in  the  Women  Saints, 
pp.  39-40 :  and  Mr.  Baring-Gould's  sketch  in  Catalogue  of  Saints 
Connected  with  Cornwall,  iii.  p.  235. 

3  Dr.  Horstman  in  Nova  Legeiida,  i.  308,  accepts  the  confusion, 
but  Bishop  Stubbs  on  the  whole  thought  it  possible  to  distinguish 


304  The  English  Saints 

"  Tata  "  of  Bede's  history.  S.  Ethelburg  has  a  fame  of 
her  own,  and  it  belongs  to  the  north  and  to  the  married 
state.  S.  Eadburg  was  a  nun  under  her  niece  S.  Mil- 
dred in  Thanet,  "  comforting  her  heart  with  divine 
studies  and  garnishing  her  soul  with  divine  contempla- 
tion and  prayer."^  Her  niece  S.  Eanswith  is  remem- 
bered only  through  late  lives,  but  John  of  Tynemouth 
seems  to  have  had  access  to  "  lost  records  which  it  is 
not  well  to  reject  absolutely.""^  In  the  priory  church  of 
Folkestone  dedicated  to  S.  Mary  and  S.  Eanswith  was 
discovered  in  1885  a  twelfth  century  reliquary  contain- 
ing what  were  doubtless  her  bones.  Her  memory  was 
that  of  an  able  administrator  and  ruler  of  religious,  the 
earliest  great  abbess  perhaps  in  the  English  list.^ 
S.  Sexburg,  Queen  of  Kent  who  built  the  abbey  of 
S.  Mary  at  Sheppey,  died  as  a  nun  at  Ely  with  her 
more  famous  sister,  and  "  when  she  was  fraught  with 
virtues  and  years  passed  hence  unto  Christ  her  love  and 
bridegroom."*  S.  Mildred  is  quoted  as  one  of  those 
who  had  hard  fight  to  maintain  their  resolution  of 
virgin  dedication,  the  very  abbess  of  her  house  "  beating 
and  bouncing  her  without  all  measure  "  to  induce  her 
to  marry  a  nephew  of  her  own.     She  has  never  been 

them  (private  letter  to  Miss  Arnold-Forster,  quoted  in  her  Studies 
in  Church  Dedications^  vol.  ii.,  pp.  354-355).  John  of  Tynemouth 
distinguished  them  and  gives  separate  lives.  Cf.  Liebermann's 
Die  Heiligen  Ent^^/ands,  pp.  5-6. 

1  Lives  of  Women  Saints,  p.  50. 

2  Bishop  Stubbs,  as  above. 

■"  See  Nova  Legenda,  i.  297  :  Woineii  Saints,  pp.  51-52  :  Arnold- 
Forster,  CliurcJi  Dedications,  ii.  355-357. 

*  Women  Saints,  p.  55:  cf.  Nova  Legcuda,  ii.  355-357:  Die 
Heiligen  Englands,  5-6. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    305 

forgotten  in  Kent,  and  though  some  have  doubted  her 
existence,  the  close  association  of  her  name  with  certain 
places  and  the  reference  in  the  earliest  English  hagi- 
ology  are  sufficient  evidence  of  the  share  that  she  took 
in  the  conversion  of  her  country.  A  legend  of  late 
origin  says  that  as  one  was  "  sleeping  in  her  church,  she 
appeared  to  him,  and  gave  him  a  blow  on  the  ear,  say- 
ing, '  Understand,  fellow,  that  this  place  is  an  Oratory 
to  pray  in  not  a  Dormitory  to  sleep  in,'  and  so  vanished 
away."^  Saint  Ebba,^  a  later  and  more  famous  saint, 
the  foundress  of  the  double  convent  at  Coldingham, 
must  not  be  forgotten.  She  was  the  friend  of  Wilfrith 
and  Cuthbert,  and  one  whose  influence  spread  far  over 
the  land  and  southward,  in  memory  at  least,  to  our  own 
city.  But  in  her  days  began  the  degeneration  of  the 
monasteries  which  the  English  writers  so  greatly 
deplore.  Bede  heard  the  tale  of  the  warning  against 
her  house,  which  she  did  all  that  she  could  to  make 
needless.  But  in  spite  of  her,  the  evils  grew  :  and  it 
needed  a  new  reformation  from  without  to  restore  the 
first  love  of  the  Saints. 

These,  and  many  like  them,  are  shadowy  memories. 
We  know  that  they  belong  to  names  of  those  who  gave 
up  their  lives  to  Christ,  setting  before  the  people  the 
example  of  devotion  and  sacred  learning.  But  there 
were  greater  names  to  come. 

From  the  beginning  of  English  Christianity  the 
Church  joyously  availed  itself  of  the  national  respect  for 

1  Women  Saints,  p.  65  :  Lives  in  Nova  Legenda,  ii.  193  sqq.  : 
Die  Heiligen  Englands,  5-6. 

-  Women  Saints,  pp.  65-67 :  Nova  Legenda,  i.  303  (full  life  by 
Reginald  in  MS.  Fairfax,  6)  :  see  Bede,  iv.  19  :    Vita  Cuthb.,  10. 

20 


3o6  The  English  Saints 

women.  Women  were  among  the  earliest  agents  of  the 
conversion,  or  at  least  of  the  establishment  of  religion 
in  settled  resting  places,  ^thelburg,  the  wife  of  Ead- 
wine,  who  took  Paulinus  to  Northumbria :  Ermenhild 
and  Ermenburg,  wives  of  Wulfhere  and  Merewald,  in 
Mercia :  four  East  Anglian  princesses ;  Eanswith  and 
Mildred  in  Kent ;  Kyneburg  and  Kyneswith  and  Tibba 
at  Peterborough,  all  helped  to  spread  the  faith,  to  build 
churches,  or  to  encourage  the  religious  life.^ 

Quite  early  in  the  history  of  the  English  conversion 
comes  the  type  of  saintly  womanhood  which  is  best 
represented  by  the  great  name  of  Hilda.'  She,  through 
her  great-uncle  Eadwine,  and  indeed  herself  as  a 
catechumen,  was  associated  with  Paulinus.  She  early 
adopted  the  monastic  life,  and  joined  one  of  the  double 
monasteries  which  were  common  and  perhaps  universal 

^  See  Lives  of  the  Women  Saints  of  our  Contrie  of  England, 
edited  from  an  unique  MS.  about  1610  by  C.  Horstmann,  E.E.T. 
Soc,  1886.  Capgrave  {Nov.  Leg.)  contains  all  the  lives  in  this 
except  Dympna  and  Mechtilde.  The  author  did  not  ever  translate 
Capgrave  verbally  :  but  generally  abridged.  Life  of  S.  Dympna 
is  a  verbal  translation  of  the  Vita  by  Peter  of  Cambray  c.  1290. 
The  other  lives  are — S.  Mechtilde  from  Thomas  of  Cantimpre, 
dc  apibus  (1597),  SS.  Helena,  Ursula,  Regna,  Brigid,  Dympna, 
Edburg,  Eanswide,  Ethelburge,  Sexburge,  Hilda,  Ermenilde, 
Werburge,  Milburge,  Mildrede,  Ebba,  [Ethelred],  Kinesburge, 
Kineswith,  Tibbe,  Ethelburge,  Hildelitha,  Cuthberge,  Withburge, 
Unthane,  Frideswide,  Walburge,  Wenefride,  Modwen,  Ositha, 
Maxentia,  Oswen,  Elflede,  Edith,  Wulfhilde,  Margaret,  Mech- 
tilde, Monica,  Agnes,  Gorgona,  Nonne  Juletta,  a  captive  in  Iberia, 
Macrina. 

-  For  S.  Hilda  see  Bede,  especially  iv.  23:  Nova  Legenda,  ii.  29 
sgq.,  from  Bede  with  additions  "perhaps  from  a  life  by  Joscelin  "  : 
Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography,  article  by  Dr.  W.  Bright :  a 
sermon,  taking  a  somewhat  distorted  view,  in  Lightfoot's  Leaders 
in  the  Northern  Church. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    307 

till  the  eighth  century  in  England.^  It  was  by  the 
command  of  Aidan  that  she  remained  in  Northumbria, 
where  her  whole  life  as  a  religious  was  passed,  first  at 
a  small  cell  at  the  north  of  the  Wear,  then  at  Hartle- 
pool, and  finally  at  Whitby,  for  ever  associated  with 
her  name.  At  Hartlepool  she  showed  the  power  that 
made  her  typical  of  the  ideal  of  English  nuns.  She 
took  pains  to  rule  her  house  "according  to  such 
maxims  of  monastic  discipline  as  she  could  learn 
from  wise  men.  For  bishop  Aidan  and  all  the 
religious  who  knew  her,  were  wont  to  visit  her,  to 
hold  her  in  regard,  and  to  give  her  instructions,  for 
the  sake  of  her  innate  wisdom  and  her  love  for  the 
service  of  God."- 

She  passed  in  657  to  the  "bay  of  the  Lighthouse" 
(so  Bede  renders  Streaneshalch),  that  most  wonderful 
and  beautiful  of  all  the  northern  harbours,  where  the 
severity  of  the  monastic  ideal  was  fitly  to  be  realised. 
There  is  "danger  conquered  by  activity"  indeed. 
"  There  are  cliffs  more  terrible,  and  winds  more  wild," 
says  Ruskin,  "  on  other  shores  ;  but  nowhere  else  do 
so  many  white  sails  lean  against  the  bleak  wind,  and 
glide  across  the  cliff  shadows."  There  are  "  not  many 
other  memorials  of  monastic  life  so  striking  as  the 
abbey  on  that  dark  headland,"^  the  abbey  that  is  the 
ruined  successor  of  Hilda's  work.  It  was  a  splendid 
foundation,  and  Hilda  was  the  type  of  the  "  mother  in 

1  So  Hunt,  English  Church,  597-1056,  p.  182:  cf.  Bright,  Early 
English  Church  History,  pp.  192-193. 

-  Bede,  iv.  23. 

3  The  Harbours  oj  England,  ed.  1895,  p.  117.  But  the  classic 
description  of  Whitby  is  of  course  in  Mrs.  Gaskell's  Sylvias  Lovers. 

20 — 2 


3o8  The  English  Saints 

Israel,"  such  as  the  great  abbesses  became,  who  ruled 
their  households  in  fear,  and  worship,  and  learning. 
Two  houses  she  had  under  her  authority,  which  lived 
"so  that  after  the  pattern  of  the  primitive  Church,  no 
one  there  ^^•as  rich  and  no  one  was  poor,  but  all  had  all 
things  in  common,  for  nothing  seemed  to  be  the  property 
of  any  one  person."  Many  ladies  of  high  degree  were 
trained  in  the  service  of  God  :  and  among  the  men  five 
became  bishops,  one  the  famous  S.  Wilfrith  himself. 
There  too  began  English  poetry.  Caidmon,  he  who 
could  never  make  a  gleeman  at  a  beer-party  but  would 
go  home  shamefast  when  others  sang,  had  the  great 
gift  bestowed  on  him,  and  sang  of  heaven  and  hell  and 
made  quick-coming  death  a  little  thing,  so  that  from 
herdsman  he  became  monk  and  taught  those  from 
whom  he  once  had  learnt.  The  story  of  his  death  is 
a  beautiful  picture  of  brotherliness.^  Whitby  was  a 
true  home  of  the  children  of  God :  and  all  who  knew 
Hilda,  says  Bede,  called  her  mother,  for  her  singular 
piety  and  grace.  The  common  folk  in  their  needs, 
and  princes  too  and  kings,  sought  the  counsel  of  this 
wise  woman  :  and  so  for  ten  years  she  ruled,  at  the 
last  broken  by  constant  sickness,  yet  ever  giving  thanks 
obediently  to  God.  Bede  tells  how  on  November  17, 
680,  she  received  "  about  cockcrow "  the  viaticum, 
and  "exhorted  her  nuns  to  keep  Christian  peace 
with  each  other  and  with  all,  and  while  uttering  her 
farewell  counsels  looked  cheerfully  on  death,  or  rather 
in  the  words  of  the  Lord,  passed  from  death  unto 
life." 

At  Hackness  a  nun  saw  in  a  dream  the  soul  of  Hilda 
^  See  Bede,  i\-.  24. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    309 

guided  by  angels  to  the  threshold  of  eternal  light.  The 
whole  folk  learnt  to  admire  and  honour  her.  Her  name 
came  to  hallow  "  the  chivalry  of  their  Christianit}'  and 
their  race":  she  was  "among  the  chief  makers  of 
England  in  the  childhood  of  the  English  nation."'^ 
And  for  her  influence,  I  can  do  no  more  than  quote 
the  words  of  Bishop  Lightfoot  :  "  Hilda  does  not  stand 
alone.  She  was  a  type,  albeit  the  highest  type,  of  a 
numerous  band  of  women,  more  especially  in  early 
times  queens  and  princesses,  who  realised  the  prophetic 
foreshadowing,  and  became  nursing  mothers  of  their 
own  Israel.  Shall  we  forget  that  the  two  ancient 
universities  of  this  land  both  trace  back  their  spiritual 
descent  to  women  of  royal  blood — Oxford  to  S.  Frides- 
wide,  and  Cambridge  to  S.  Etheldreda  ?"'^ 

Bede  tells  of  many  other  holy  women  who  were 
inspired  to  live  for  God,  and  among  the  Legends  are 
many  like  Hildelith  and  Ulfild:  but  there  is  no  story 
more  beautiful  than  that  of  the  young  nun,  Eadgyth, 
who  as  she  lay  dying  said,  "  My  light  will  come  to  me 
at  the  dawn  of  day. "^ 

Yet  before  we  pass,  with  Bishop  Lightfoot,  to 
Frideswide  and  Etheldreda,  we  should  note  that 
Englishwomen  did  not  confine  their  work  to  their 
own  land. 

Among  the  earliest  English  missionaries  to  the  Ger- 
mans were  many  women ;  and  they  too,  after  the 
manner  of  S.  Hilda,  were  missionaries  of  culture  as 
well   as    of  Christianit}-.     Famous    among    them    were 

1  Lightfoot,  Leaders  in  the  Northern  C/iwc/i,  pp.  66,  67. 
^  J  bid.,  p.  68. 

2  Bede,  iv.  8. 


310  The  English  Saints 

Leobgyth,  Thecla,  and  Cynehild,  who  with  her  son 
and  husband  and  her  daughter  Berthgit  entered  the 
service  of  the  German  Church.^  Thus  from  the  first 
days  of  mission  work  EngHshwomen  have  understood 
how  great  a  part  they  might  play  in  the  turning  of  the 
nations  to  Christ. 

As  abroad,  in  the  dangers  of  the  German  forests,  so 
at  home  among  the  swamps  of  Oxford  and  the  fens  of 
Ely. 

To  the  age  in  which  it  is  difficult  to  disentangle  from 
later  myth  the  fragments  of  authentic  history  belong 
the  name  and  holiness  of  Frideswide.'^ 

The  earliest  extant  account  of  her  life  seems  to  be 
that  of  William  of  Malmesbury :  but  two  manuscripts 
of  the  early  twelfth  century  give  a  short  life  of  her, 
with  accompanying  miracles.  She  refused  to  wed  with 
any  man,  being  vowed  to  Christ,  and  she  escaped  from 
a  too  pressing  suitor  by  the  way  of  the  Thames,  in  a 
boat  with  two  sisters,  and  a  beautiful  young  man  in 
white  and  splendid  raiment,  who  rowed  them  ten  miles 
in  an  hour,  to  Bampton  or  Benson  or  Binsey,  none  of 
which  places  is  at  that  distance  from  Oxford.  There 
was  a  rich  legend  about  her  in  the  fourteenth  century : 
it  even  attributed  to  her  a  temporary  residence  in  a  pig- 
sty :  but  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  it  grew  round 
simple  fact. 

William  of  Malmesbury,  our  earliest  authority,  con- 

1  See  Boniface,  Epp-  23,  32,  10,  91,  148,  149:  and  Hauck, 
Kirchengeschichie,  I.  ii.  474-478. 

2  Her  history  and  legend   are   exhaustively  examined   by   Mr. 
James  Parker  in  his  Early  History  of  Oxford^  cap.  5.     Her  lirief 
life  is  told  by  John  of  Tynemouth,  i\mui  Lcgenda  Aiiolie,  i.  457 
461. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    311 

nects  the  story  with  the  abbey  of  later  fame^ :  "There 
was  anciently  in  the  City  of  Oxford  a  Convent  of  Nuns, 
in  which  the  most  holy  virgin  Frideswide  reposes. 
She,  the  daughter  of  a  king,  despised  marriage  with 
a  king,  consecrating  her  virginity  to  the  Lord  Christ. 
But  he,  when  he  had  set  his  mind  on  marrying  the 
virgin,  and  found  all  his  entreaties  and  blandishments 
of  no  avail,  determined  to  make  use  of  forcible  means. 
When  Frideswide  discovered  this,  she  determined  upon 
taking  liight  into  the  wood.  But  neither  could  her 
hiding  place  be  kept  secret  from  her  lover,  nor  was 
there  want  of  courage  to  hinder  his  following  the  fugi- 
tive. The  virgin  therefore,  having  heard  of  the  renewed 
passion  of  the  young  man,  found  her  way,  by  the  help 
of  God,  through  obscure  paths,  in  the  dead  of  night, 
into  Oxford.  When  in  the  morning  her  anxious  lover 
hastened  thither,  the  maiden,  now  despairing  of  safety 
by  flight,  and  also  by  reason  of  her  weariness  being 
unable  to  proceed  further,  invoked  the  aid  of  God  for 
herself,  and  punishment  upon  her  persecutor.  And 
now,  as  he  with  his  companions  approached  the  gates 
of  the  city,  he  suddenly  became  blind,  struck  by  the 
hand  of  heaven.  And  when  he  had  admitted  the  fault 
of  his  obstinacy,  and  Frideswide  was  besought  by  his 
messengers,  he  received  back  again  his  sight  as  suddenly 
as  he  had  lost  it.  Hence  there  has  arisen  a  dread 
amongst  all  the  kings  of  England  which  has  caused 
them  to  beware  of  entering  and  abiding  in  that  city 
since  it  is  said  to  be  fraught  with  destruction,  every 
one  of  the  kings  declining  to  test  the  truth  for  himself 

^  "  Some  time  after  the  glorious  death  of  S.  Frideswide.  the  nuns 
having  been  taken  away,  secular  canons  were  introduced."  So  the 
Cartulary  of  S.  Frideswide  (Ch.  Ch.  MSS.),  Parker,  pp.  319-322. 


3T2  The  English  Saints 

by  incurring  the  danger.  In  that  place,  therefore,  this 
maiden,  having  gained  the  triumph  of  her  virginity, 
estabhshed  a  convent,  and  when  her  days  were  over 
and  her  Spouse  called  her,  she  there  died."^ 

Of  wider  fame  was  S.  Etheldreda,  over  whose  shrine 
rose  the  great  Cathedral  of  the  fens.  Twice  a  wife  only 
in  name,  she  left  Ecgfrith  the  Northumbrian  king,  by 
the  help  of  Wilfrith,-  to  rule  the  house  of  Coldingham 
in  the  northern  half  of  his  realm,  forgetting  or  unheeding 
the  saying  of  the  father  of  English  Christianity,  that  to 
dissolve  marriage  for  the  sake  of  religion  is  forbidden 
by  the  law  of  God.^  Ecgfrith,  though  he  had  married 
another  wife,  could  not  bear  to  lose  her,  and  she  fled 
southwards  to  her  own  fenland,  and  founded  an  abbey 
for  monks  and  nuns.  As  she  fled  her  thirst  was 
quenched  by  a  fresh  spring  rising  from  the  ground, 
and  her  staff  grew  into  a  shelter  over  her  head.'*  It 
is  possible  that  this  legend  is  connected  \\ith  the  old 
pagan  worship  of  trees  and  springs,  and  that  here  we 
have  a  survival,  or  an  adaptation,  of  what  the  Church 
had  done  her  utmost  to  suppress.  The  sacred  fount  of 
S.  Audrey,  and  S.  Jutwara,-''  and  S.   Keyne,''  the  holy 

'  \V.  Malm.,  Gesta  Pontificum  (Rolls  Series),  p.  315. 

-  Bishop  Browne  has  some  interesting  remarks  on  this  and  its 
consequences,  Theodore  and  Wilfrith^  pp.  127  sqq.  Wilfrith  pre- 
tended to  urge  her  to  yield  to  Ecgfrith  but  really  confirmed  her  in 
her  resolution.     So  Nova  Legenda^  i.  424. 

•'  S.  Gregory,  Episfolae,  xi.  45. 

•*  Cf.  Nova  Legenda,  ii.  no,  for  a  similar  idea  in  regard  to 
S.  Kenelm.  The  Dean  of  Ely  in  his  paper  on  the  Ely  Octagon 
.SV7//;^/7/r^j  (Tindall,  Ely)  seems  inclined  to  favour  the  identification 
of  the  place  with  the  Stow  of  S.  Hugh  ;  cf.  above,  ]).  216. 

'■'  See  Baring-Gould,  Cornish  Dedications  (R.I.C.),  \>.  225. 

^  Ibid..,  p.  235.     These  are  only  a  few  among  many  examples. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    313 

well  of  S.  Frideswide  and  S.  Winifrith,i  and  many  more 
may  well  look  back  to  a  primitive  past.  But  it  is 
possible  to  strain  these  myth-genealogies  too  far :  we 
may  be  told  that  the  tree  to  which  S.  Edmund  was 
bound  was  of  kin  to  the  golden  bough,  and  we  shall 
wonder  if  trees  may  enter  into  historic  fact  at  all 
without  transmuting  it  into  legend.-  It  cannot  be 
too  emphatically  asserted  that  the  Church  set  herself, 
without  any  hesitation  or  looking  back,  to  the  de- 
struction of  pagan  superstitions.^  As  in  Gaul,  so  in 
England,  the  progress  of  Christianity  was  marked 
everywhere  by  the  abolition  of  the  relics  of  druid 
worship.* 

^  For  S.  Winifrith  see  life  of  S.  Beino  in  Rees,  Lives  of  Canih'O- 
British  Saints.  Refusing  the  advances  of  King  Caradoc  she  was 
killed  by  him.  S.  Beino's  prayers  restored  her  to  life,  and  at  the 
place  where  her  blood  was  shed  gushed  forth  S.  Winifred's  well  in 
Flintshire.  Further  cases  of  well-worship  are  summarized  by 
Borlase,  The  Age  of  the  Saints,  pp.  97  sqg. 

'^  Mr.  W.  Hunt,  The  English  Church,  597-1066,  connects  the 
legend  of  S.  ^thelfryth  with  "  the  old  heathen  reverence  for  spring- 
ing water  and  trees."  It  is  curious  that  Mr.  P^-azer,  The  Goldett 
Bough,  1st  edition,  vol.  i.,  pp.  56-108,  makes  no  allusion  to  the  tree 
references  in  hagiology  or  in  medieval  history.  The  life  of  Joan  of 
Arc  shows  the  survi\al. 

^  M.  A.  Bertrand,  La  Religion  des  Gaulois,  Annexe  D.,  gives  an 
elaborate  list  of  condemnations  by  councils,  etc.,  which  refutes  the 
view  he  takes  in  the  text  of  his  book. 

'^  On  the  history  of  the  subject  in  Gaul,  which  has  been  much 
more  fully  treated  than  in  England,  see  Bulliot  and  Thiollier,  La 
mission  et  le  culte  de  S.  Martin,  p.  26  :  "  Le  culte  des  g^nies  des 
eaux,  multiplie  a  I'infini  dans  les  campagnes  de  la  Gaule,  y  con- 
stituait  k  proprement  parler,  avec  celui  du  soleil,  la  veritable 
religion  du  peuple.  Les  sources  fournissaient  aux  colons  non 
seulement  le  breuvage  pour  eux  et  leur  troupeau,  non  seulement 
la  fertilite  du  sol,  mais  tons  les  actes  de  la  vie  tombaient  dans 
leur  domaine.     L'enfant  arrivait-il  k  la  lumiere  ?     C'dtait  la  fde  de 


3T4  The  English  Saints 

S.  Audrey  may  be  absolved  from  any  pagan  supersti- 
tion. She  died  in  679,  and  Bede  writing  in  731  preserves 
what  is  practically  a  contemporary  portrait.  The  Eng- 
lish ideal  of  female  saintliness,  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say,  was  formed  upon  what  he  wrote.^     She  "  long  and 

la  fontaine,  la  Dame,  qui  avait  preside  k  sa  venue,  qui  I'avait  dou^. 
Voulait-on  savoir  s'il  franchirait  sans  encombre  ce  seuil  fragile  de 
I'existence,  s'il  rdsisterait  aux  dpreuves  de  la  maladie,  s'il  atteindrait 
I'age  viril  ?  La  fontaine  consultee  au  moyen  de  certaines  pratiques 
rendait  un  oracle  sans  appel.  Le  b^tail  ddpdrrisait-il?  un  maldfice 
portait-il  le  trouble  dans  la  sant^  ?  La  fontaine  avait  des  remides 
pour  tons  les  maux,  des  pronostics  infallibles  et,  k  I'heure  supreme, 
elle  avertissait  la  famille  du  sort  du  moribond.  Un  culte  identifie 
aussi  profond^ment  avec  I'existence  journaliere  devait  s'incruster 
plus  qu'aucun  autre  et  aussi  a-t-il  ^te  plus  tenace  que  celui  des 
dieux  officiels.  II  s'est  transform^  sans  ccder  sa  place."  On 
p.  240  the  authors  give  a  good  example  of  destruction  of  local 
(Pagan)  fountains.  See  also  on  the  ancient  sacred  springs, 
A.  Bertrand,  La  Relii^ion  des  Gatilois,  p.  197  :  "  Le  clergd  a  eu  soin 
de  nous  en  conserver  le  souvenir.  Ces  sources,  ainsi  dit  J.  de 
Petigny,  faisaient  des  miracles.  Les  abbes,  les  dveques,  dont  les 
localitds  ddpendaient,  n'ont  pas  voulu  en  interrompre  le  cours. 
Ces  miracles  se  faisant  au  nom  du  ddmon,  ils  decid^rent  qu'ils  se 
feraient  au  nom  des  saints,  et,  en  efifet,  il  s'agit  bien  de  miracles, 
puisque  les  eaux  de  ces  fontaines,  de  ces  sources,  de  ces  rivieres, 
n'avaient  et  n'ont  aucune  vertu  rdelle  que  la  vertu  myst^rieuse  que 
leur  pretaient  les  genies  et  les  nymphes.  Les  pelerinages  et  les 
neuvaines  continuerent  et  n'ont  cessd  qu'en  partie.  Les  conciles 
cherch^rent  h.  les  arrcter,  ils  n'y  reussirent  pas.  II  fallut  ceder 
au  prdjug^s  populaires,  tant  ces  pratiques  dtaient  enracinees  dans 
le  coeur  de  nos  vieux  Celtes."  That  the  pagan  superstition  lasted 
long  in  England  and  was  recognized  and  condemned  as  pagan  may 
be  seen  from  the  action  of  S.  Hugh,  Magna  Vita  S.  Hj4g07iis,  v.  17. 
1  Bede,  Hist.  EccL,  iv.  17  (19).  See  Mr.  PUmimer's  notes  to  his 
edition,  vol.  ii.  234-240.  For  the  mention  of  her  in  the  English 
Chronicle  a.d.  673,  679,  963,  see  Earle  and  Plummer,  T^vo  Saxon 
Chronicles,  ii.,  notes  on  each  passage.  W.  Bright,  Early  English 
Church  History  (second  edition),  pp.  260-263.  1  here  is  a  life  also 
in  Lives  of  the  Women  Saints,  E.  E.  Text  Soc. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    315 

earnestly  desired"  King  Ecgfrith  "that  he  would  allow 
her  to  lay  aside  worldly  cares  and  in  a  monastery  to 
serve  the  true  King  Christ."  At  Ely  "  having  built 
a  monastery  she  began  by  examples  and  warnings  of  a 
heavenly  life  to  be  the  virgin  mother  of  many  virgins 
dedicated  to  God."  From  the  time  she  entered  this 
house  she  wore  no  linen  but  only  woollen,  and  she  had 
long  laid  aside  the  needless  weight  of  jewels,  gold  and 
pearls,  which  she  wore  when  she  was  very  young. 
The  luxury  of  a  hot  bath  she  allowed  herself  only 
before  the  great  festivals,  and  then  made  it  a  sign  of 
humility,  by  first  bathing  her  nuns.  She  seldom  ate 
more  than  once  a  day  :  and  daily  she  stayed  at  prayer 
from  the  hour  of  matins^  till  daybreak.  Round  her  she 
gathered  gentle  maidens  to  teach  them  the  ways  of  God, 
and,  of  royal  race  sprung  from  an  earthly  monarch,  she 
followed  the  holy  mother  of  the  heavenly  King.'^ 

In  her  life  she  was  the  kinswoman  or  the  friend  of 
the  greatest  saints  of  her  time,  Hilda  and  Wilfrith,  and 
Cuthbert  and  may  be  John  of  Beverley. 

Years  after  she  died  men  found  in  the  uncorrupt- 
ness  of  her  body  a  sign  of  the  purity  of  her  soul, 
and  her  sister  sought  for  her  a  stone  coffin  of  Roman 
times,  marble,  like  the  great  coffers  that  hold  the 
holy    sovereigns    of    the    East,'''    to    be   the    shrine   of 

^  Soon  after  midnight. 

'■^  So  Bede  in  his  poem,  iv.  18  (20). 

3  Like  those  great  sarcophagi  at  S.  Irene,  Constantinople,  or  the 
so-called  tomb  of  Stilicho  at  S.  Ambrogio,  Milan.  Very  consider- 
able interest  attaches  to  Bede's  description  of  the  locellum  de 
marmori'.  albo  pulcherriine  factiun^  as  showing  the  artistic  taste 
awaking  in  England,  and  evidenced  by  much  work  still  surviving 
in  the  North. 


3i6  The  Engtjsh  Saints 

all  that  was  left  of  one  so  deeply  loved.  A  simple 
shrine  at  first,  but  then  over  it  there  rose  the  minster 
which  the  Danes  sacked  and  burned,  and  then  again 
the  Benedictine  house  which  Dunstan  hallowed,  and 
where  the  body  of  the  saint  rested  above  ground  by 
the  high  altar, ^  when  king  Cnut  from  his  boat  listened 
to  the  singing  of  the  monks  ;  and  then,  lastly,  the  great 
cathedral  church  to  which  the  relics  were  translated 
in  presence  of  Henry  III.  in  1252.  There,  though  her 
bones  have  long  been  scattered,  her  memory  abides  in 
many  a  sculptured  stone,  as  in  the  still  honoured  dedi- 
cation of  the  church  itself.  The  legend  of  her  wander- 
ings, fixed  in  sculpture  on  a  corbel  in  the  octagon, 
serves  for  a  parable  of  "the  life  history  of  the  Church 
of  the  nation,  of  its  ever-changing  fortune,  of  its  ever- 
expanding  mission,  of  its  vicissitudes  and  dangers  and 
trials,  many  and  various,  and  yet  of  its  essential 
character  unchanged  and  unchanging,  '  the  leaves  of 
the  tree  for  the  healing  of  the  nation,'  because  of  its 
living  root  firmly  planted  '  on  the  word  of  our  God 
which  standeth  for  ever'":  and  to-day  clerks  of  stout 
Protestant  faith  do  not  shame  to  dedicate  their  work  to 
God  asking  the  help  of  her  intercessions.- 

S,    Werburga,    who  died   about   the   year   700,    the 

^  Liber  Eliensis,  ii.  52. 

2  The  Dean  of  Ely  concludes  the  Preface  to  his  Historical 
Memorials  of  Ely  Cathedral,  1897,  by  adopting  as  his  own  the 
prayer  of  Thomas  in  the  Liber  Eliensis— "  Miserere  eorum  sorti 
compatere,  quos  tibi  devotos,  beata  mater,  intenderis,  orationibus 
tuis  juva,  el  certamen  bonum  futura  immortalitas  prosequatur 
pauperis  tui  cultoris,  cujus  tuas  laudi  sudavit  ingenium  :  dedicentur 
Christo,  te  intcrcedente,  labores."  So  far  has  the  Invocation  of 
Saints  recently  spread. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    317 

daughter  of  Wulfhere  and  daughter  of  S.  Ermenhild, 
was  another  of  the  great  princely  abbesses.  She  was 
abbess  of  Ely,  and  later  she  was  set  over  several 
Mercian  nunneries.  It  was  at  Trentham  that  she  died, 
and  about  875  her  body  was  carried,  during  the  Danish 
wars,  to  Chester,  where  it  remained  to  form  the  centre 
of  a  devotion  which  eventually  built  the  great  abbey 
and  church  of  that  city.  She  appears  as  a  pattern 
abbess,  giving  shrewd  and  saintly  advice  to  her  nuns  ; 
and  the  legends  of  her  give  her  some  quaint  humour 
that  showed  itself  in  miracle.  The  wild  geese  that 
came  when  she  did  not  want  them  were  "  pynned  by 
her  commaundyment  and  also  releshed  and  put  at 
lybertie":  and  it  made  no  difference  that  one  had 
already  been  cooked  and  eaten.  On  the  meek  sub- 
mission of  the  others  he  was  restored  to  life.^ 

But  the  saintly  women  were  not  all  like  Hilda  or 
Frideswide  or  Werburga  or  Etheldreda.  The  character 
of  that  good  Englishwoman,  Margaret  Queen  of  Scots, 
as  it  is  drawn  by  her  chaplain,  Turgot,  was  that  of  a 
pattern  wife  and  mother.  She  brought  up  her  children  in 
the  fear  of  the  Lord,  she  ruled  her  household,  uniting 
"  such  strictness  to  her  sweetness  and  such  sweetness 
to  her  strictness  that  all  who  were  in  her  service,  men 
as  well  as  women,  while  fearing  loved  her  and  while 
loving  feared  her."  In  whatever  she  did  or  said  "she 
showed  that  her  mind  was  dwelling  on  things  divine  ": 

1  This  legend  is  in  the  Life  by  Henry  Bradshaw,  a  monk  of 
S.  Werburga's  Abbey,  Chester  (ob.  15 13),  E.  E.  Text  Soc,  1887 
(which  reprints  the  life  by  Joscelin),  pp.  96-99.  It  is  told  also  in  the 
Lives  of  Wonen  Saittis.  See  Nova  Legettda,  ii.  422  sqq.,  articles 
by  Bp.  Stubbs  in  Diet.  C/ir.  Biog.  and  Re\'.  W.  Hunt  in  Dir/. 
Nat.  Bioc. 


3i8  The  English  Saints 

and  when  she  walked  forth  in  her  state  "  she  in  her 
heart  trod  all  these  trappings  under  her  feet."  Merci- 
ful and  charitable,  the  patroness  of  learning,  a  loving 
wife,  a  wise  sovereign,  she  left  a  memory  which  was 
cherished  by  generations  as  the  ideal  of  a  hoi}-  woman 
who  lived  in  the  world. ^  The  many  tales  that  are  told  of 
her,  of  her  advice  to  her  children,  of  her  anxiety  to  be 
corrected  when  any  faults  were  seen  in  her,  of  her 
earnest  devotion  to  the  Sacrament  of  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ  and  her  care  to  urge  frequent  com- 
munion, of  her  close  study  of  the  Gospels,  of  her  night 
hours  spent  in  prayer,  of  her  care  for  prisoners  and 
captives,  for  distressed  English  folk  made  slaves  by  the 
Scots,  of  her  loving  charity  to  orphans  and  the  poor, 
bear  on  them  all  the  stamp  of  true  records  of  a  life  that 
impressed  itself  on  the  memories  of  those  who  knew 
and  loved  her. 

Like  so  many  of  the  women  saints  of  this  age,  she 
was  great  too  in  wisdom  of  State,  and  she  did  a  great 
work.  She  helped  to  remodel  the  old  Scottish  society, 
by  her  influence  bringing  in  new  customs  of  land- 
holding  and  personal  relation,  and  quickening  the 
national  life  into  unity  such  as  "  the  divided  clans 
of  a  Celtic  people "  could  not  know.''  Wise,  loving, 
saintly,  she  was  a  model  for  queens  of  English  race  : 
and  thus  five  centuries  after  her  death  men  still 
remembered  her.  "...  The  vertuous  Ladie  was  com- 
pelled to   manage  worldlie  matters,  yet  her  hart  was 

1  Her  life  by  her  confessor  Turgot  [or  Theodoric]  is  in  Pinkerton, 
Lives  of  the  Scottish  Saints^  1889,  ii.  159-196.  N07U1  Legenda, 
ii.  168-175. 

-'  Magnus  Maclean,  7'he  Literature  of  the  Celts,  p.  93. 


far  from  louing  them.  By  her  wise  counsaile  and 
commandement  all  was  donne  that  was  conuenient,  by 
her  advice  were  the  lawes  of  the  kingdome  ordered,  by 
her  Industrie  gods  glorie  and  honour  cheefelie  aduanced. 
None  more  firme  in  faith  than  she,  none  more  com- 
posed and  stayed  in  countenance.  She  was  so  patient 
in  suffering,  so  mature  in  counselling,  so  just  in  judging, 
so  sweete  in  communication  as  none  more."^ 

A  word  should  be  said  of  the  women  hermits,  or 
anchoresses.  These  were  not  at  all  uncommon  in 
England,  and  S.  Keyne  and  S.  Frideswide  are  by  some 
ranked  among  them.  They  lived  apart  in  cells,  often 
attached  to  parish  churches,  and  were  in  most  cases 
enclosed  for  life.  It  is  easy  to  mock  at  their  lives,  and 
the  Middle  Ages  were  not  silent  in  that  regard.  There 
were  "  prying,  peering,  gossipping,  prating,  listening," 
women  among  them  :  they  needed  a  book  of  special 
warning  about  their  feminine  weaknesses.  Some  people 
even  said  "  of  the  anchoresses  that  almost  every  one 
hath  an  old  woman  to  feed  her  ears,  a  prating  gossip 
who  tells  her  all  the  tales  of  the  land."  Some  were  no 
more  than  comfortable  ladies,  living  a  retired  life,  but 
by  no  means  without  visitors,  and  enjoying,  by  per- 
mission of  their  rule,  the  company  of  a  domestic  cat. 
But  at  the  best  it  was  a  strict  and  pious  life  spent  in 
solitude,  prayer  and  vigil,  in  counsel  wisely  given,  in 
sympathy  and  intercession — a  life  wholly  dedicate  and 
apart,- 

1  From  Lives  of  the  Women  Saints,  E.  E.  Text.  S.,  p.  109. 

-  On  the  anchoresses,  see  77^^?  Ancren  Riwle,  13th  century, 
ed.  G.  J.  Merton,  Camden  Society,  1853;  and  F.  M.  Steele, 
Anchoresses  of  the  West,  1903. 


320  The  English  Saints 

Another  and  much  rarer  type  of  the  woman  saint 
among  the  EngHsh  folk  is  the  mystic.  From  this 
place  the  gentle  hopefulness  of  Juliana  of  Norwich 
has  been  beautifully  commemorated.'  The  Julians  and 
JuHanas  of  English  dedications  are  hopelessly  confused :' 
and  Julitta  of  North  Cornwall  claims  place  among  them, 
with  S.  Julitta  of  Tarsus,  whose  name  was  borne  by  the 
ruined  chapel  at  Tintagel.^  The  name  Juliana  was  in- 
deed highly  reverenced  in  England  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
as  the  two  famous  manuscripts  telling  the  story  of  a 
S.  Juliana  of  some  Roman  persecution  show.^  But 
Juliana  of  Norwich  whose  memory  was  merged  in  that 
of  the  others  seems  to  have  come  near  to  S.  Teresa 
in  the  keenness  of  her  spiritual  insight.  The  charac- 
teristic thoughts  of  her  exquisite  revelation  of  a  pure 
soul  bound  by  cords  of  love  to  the  Lord  of  Life  are 
summed  up  in  those  happy  words,  which  answer  so 
many  questionings  of  medieval  saints  and  modern 
sinners, — "To  me  was  showed  none  harder  hell  than 
sin."  Side  by  side  with  her  sincere  and  gentle 
thoughts  may  be  set  the  lines  attributed  to  that 
striking  personality,  that  ruler  of  women  and  leader 
of  men,  S.  Itha  (S.  Issey)  of  Cornwall,  one  of  those 
Irish  missionaries  whose  influence  on  the  West  of 
England  was  so  strong  during  the  days  before  English 
Christianity  had  begun  : 

'  See  W.  R.  Inge,  Bampton  Lectures,  1899  iChnstian  Mys- 
ticism), pp.  201  sqq.;  and  Revelations  of  Divine  Love,  ed. 
Collins. 

'■^  See  Arnold- Forster,  Studies  in  Church  Dedications. 

3  See  Baring  -  (jould.  Catalogue  df  Cornish  Saints,  iii.  219- 
220. 

**  Sec  Early  Eng.  Text.  'Soc,  Juliana,  1872. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    321 

"  Sons  of  princes,  sons  of  kings 
Though  they  to  my  country  come, 
Not  from  them  make  I  demands  ! 
Jesus  is  my  rest,  my  home. 

"  Sing  in  chorus,  damsels  pure, 
Greatest  tribute  is  His  due. 
High  in  heaven  His  throne  endure. 
Though  he  comes  to  me  and  you."' 


are  brought  into  prominence  by  these  Hves  of  women 
saints.  Strength  and  gentleness  are  rarely  severed  in 
their  stories :  their  devotion  does  not  unfit  them  for 
rule,  but  rather  clears  their  vision,  purifies  their  powers 
from  all  taint  of  self-will,  sends  them  forth,  either  to 
teach  and  govern  in  cloisters  where  the  arts  of  civiliza- 
tion and  religion  were  cultivated,  or  to  bring  up  children 
in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  to  train  princes  for  kingship  and 
bright-hearted  children  for  the  consecrated  life. 

There  is  a  mark  on  the  histories  of  these  English 
saints  which  is  not  on  that  of  the  famous  Italians,  or 
Spaniards,  or  French  women,  who  have  been  ranked 
among  the  Saints  of  God.  It  is  the  mark  which  is 
still  seen  on  the  lives  of  many  English  sisters  and  in 
the  nurture  of  many  English  homes.  It  seems  to  us 
that  foreign  women  saints  had  often  a  lack  of  restraint 
bordering  upon  hysteria.  Hallucinations  of  sight,  touch, 
and  hearing,  are  frequent  accompaniments  of  what  they 
have  believed  to  be  revelations :  a  passion  for  suffering 
and  humiliation,  or  an  ecstatic  sense,  almost  physical, 
of  the  Divine  presence,  approach,  or  pass,  the  bounds 

'  Translation  by  Rev.  S.  Baring-Gould,  in  Catalogue  of  Cornish 
Saints,  iii.  p.  211,  from  Whitley  Stokes  Felire  of  Oengus,  p.  xxxv. 

21 


322  Till-:  English  Saints 

of  sanity.^  The  caution  is  constantly  given  by  Bene- 
dict XI\^  that  women  are  much  more  Hable  than  men 
to  ilhisions,  to  unreal  visions  and  apparitions,  that  they 
must  undere^o  more  severe  tests  when  their  sanctity  is 
in  question,  and  the  like.-  They  are  cautions  which  the 
history  of  the  Church  abroad  shows  to  have  been 
abundantly  needed.'*  But  in  England  a  perfect  sim- 
plicity is  mingled  more  commonly,  we  think,  than  in 
other  lands,  with  knowledge.  S.  Hilda's  influence  is 
still  strong  among  English  students.  Knowledge, 
prudence,  simphcity,  devotion — not  the  extremes  of 
Latin  asceticism  or  the  flamboyant  courage  of  French 
types  of  female  saintliness,  or  the  restricted  outlook  of 
the  German, — but  a  calm,  sane,  and  complete  dedica- 
tion to  the  work  given  by  God,  that  is  what  the  Church 
has  taught  through  the  lives  of  Englishwomen  of  the 
past  to  Englishwomen  still  to  come. 

When  we  speak  of  women  saints  in  England  \\e  can 
never  speak  of  them  alone.  Whether  as  abbesses,  with 
great  schools  under  their  charge,  or  as  royal  ladies, 
ruling  their  households  in  the  fear  of  God,  the  women 
saints  have  always  had  children  very  near  their  hearts 
in  the  love  of  God.  We  pass  naturally  from  them  to 
the  stories  of  child  martyrs  and  child  saints. 

Of  the  kings  we  have  already  spoken.  The  other 
saints  are  all  poor.     Among  the  English  saint-legends 

I  Cf.  the  quotations  in  W.  James,  Varieties  of  Kcligious  Ex- 
perience, pp.  310,  311,  343-345)  fi'om  Bougaud,  Histoite  dc  la 
bienheureuse  Marguerite  Marie. 

-  De  Canonizatione  ct  Beatificatione  Sanctorian;  e.g.  \ol.  \i., 
pp.  415  sqq. 

•■*  The  case  of  Madame  do  Guyon  is  perhaps  the  best  known. 
See  tlie  admirable  account  of  her  in  Lord  St.  Cyres's  Fhiclon. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints 


323 


of  the  Middle  Age  it  is  impossible  to  ignore  the  many 
of  which  the  old  Lincolnshire  song  is  the  reminiscence  : 

"  How  can  I  pity  your  weep,  mother, 
And  I  so  long  in  pain  ? 
For  the  Httle  penknife  sticks  close  in  my  heart 
And  the  Jew's  wife  has  me  slain. 

"  Go  home,  go  home,  my  mother  dear, 
And  prepare  my  winding  sheet  ; 
For  to-morrow  morning  before  eight  o'clock 
You  with  my  body  shall  meet. 

"  And  lay  the  prayer-book  at  my  head 
And  my  grammar  at  my  feet ; 
That  all  the  little  schoolfellows  as  they  pass  by 
May  read  them  for  my  sake."' 

It  is  now  believed  that  the  story,  which  became 
common  all  over  Europe,  originated  in  England.  It 
was  first  asserted  that  Jews  had  murdered  a  Christian 
child :  then  it  was  added  that  this  was  a  sacrifice 
allowed  by  their  law,  and  indeed  enjoined.  This  latter 
view  has  had  an  extraordinary  vogue  throughout 
Europe,  but  it  must  be  regarded  as  completely  dis- 
proved.-    But   of  the  belief  of  medieval   Europe   that 

1  From  Efiglish  Country  Songs  (Broadwood  and  Fuller  Mait- 
land,  1893),  p.  86. 

'■^  The  classical  work  on  the  subject  is  Die  Blutaberglaube, 
Dr.  H.  L.  Strack,  Miinchen,  1891.  In  a  very  clear  and  impressive 
article  in  The  Nineteenth  Century,  vol.  xiv.,  pp.  753-778,  Dr.  C.  H.  H. 
Wright  argued  the  subject  in  relation  to  the  Tisza-Eszlar  case,  1882. 
The  original  statements  on  the  subject  are  those  of  Josephus,  Contra 
Apionein,  ii.  8,  and  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccl.,  vii.  16.  In  the  case  of 
S.  William  of  Norwich,  it  seems  to  have  been  asserted  from  the 
first  that  there  was  a  custom  of  the  Jews  to  murder  Christian 
children  :  e.g.,  S.  William  of  Aioriuich,  Jessopp  and  James,  pp.  44 
and  88. 


324  The  English  Saints 

several  Christian  children  had  been  martyred  by  Jews 
in  contempt  or  abhorrence  of  the  religion  of  Christ  there 
can  be  no  doubt  at  all  :  and  the  belief  had  so  important 
a  share  in  the  popular  cult  of  saints  that  it  must  be 
referred  to  in  some  detail. 

In  1 144  at  Norwich  in  Holy  Week  occurred  the  murder 
of  a  poor  little  ragged  boy^  named  William,  the  son  of 
country  folk  called  Wenstan  and  Elwina.  He  was  only 
eleven  or  twelve  years  old,  but  was  learning  the  trade 
of  a  skinner  ;  and  he  was  a  good  boy,  much  devoted  to 
the  rules  of  the  Church,  to  prayer  and  piety.  He  had 
often  visited  Jews,  but  had  now^  been  forbidden  to  do  so. 
On  the  Monday  and  Tuesday  before  Easter  he  was  lured 
away  from  his  employment  against  his  mother's  wishes, 
and  finally  he  was  taken  into  a  Jew's  house,  after 
which  he  was  never  seen  alive.  On  Easter  eve  his  body 
was  found  in  Thorpe  wood,  with  suspicious  wounds 
and  the  head  shaved,  from  which  it  seems  to  have  been 
thought  that  the  child  had  been  murdered  by  Jews  in 
contempt  and  derision  of  the  Passion  of  Christ.  The 
body  was  first  buried  where  it  was  found,  after  it  had 
been  seen  by  many  people  :  a  month  later  it  was  trans- 
lated to  the  Monks'  Cemetery.  The  Jews  were  mean- 
while formally  accused  of  the  crime  :  popular  indigna- 
tion was  excited  in  every  possible  way  :  but  the  sheriff 
(whether  he  was  bribed  or  not,  as  was  suggested  by  the 
monks)  was  quite  strong  enough  to  protect  the  Jews  as 
the  king's  most-  precious  chattels,  and  he  did  protect 
them.  No  punishment  was  ever  inflicted.  The  sus- 
picion was  not  brought  home. 

'  .V.  ll'i/liiiiii  of  Norwich,  p.  87. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    325 

We  may  in  all  probability  dismiss  the  idea  of  an 
organized  or  in  any  sense  sacrificial  act :  but  since  there 
is  no  sign  whatever  of  previous  preparations  of  such  a 
charge,  or  of  popular  resentment  at  the  favoured  posi- 
tion of  the  Jews  taking  this  line,  we  cannot  refuse  to 
believe  that,  in  all  probability,  the  boy  was  murdered  by 
a  Jew.^ 

The  description  of  what  actually  happened  in  the 
Jew's  house  must  be  purely  imaginary  :  it  is  supposed 
to  come  partly  from  a  Jew  who  had  turned  Christian, 
who  in  any  case  was  not  present.  But  it  is  of  interest 
because  it  was  undoubtedly  spread  abroad  over  England, 
and  the  people  came  everywhere  to  believe  that  a  child 
had  been  tortured  in  imitation  of  the  Passion  and  fixed 
to  a  cross  by  Jews,  "  as  though  they  would  say.  Even 
as  we  condemned  the  Christ  to  a  shameful  death,  so  let 
us  also  condemn  the  Christian,  so  that,  uniting  the  Lord 
with  His  servant  in  a  like  punishment,  we  may  retort 
upon  themselves  the  pain  of  that  reproach  which  they 
impute  to  us,"' 

1  Dr.  M.  R.James  writes  thus  (Introduction,  p.  Ixxii)  :  "  I  should 
think  nothing  of  the  evidence  were  it  not  that  we  are  deahng  with 
the  first  of  all  the  medieval  accusations  of  child-murder.  But  that 
is  a  very  important  point.  The  way  in  which  those  on  the  spot 
received  the  notion  is  instructive.  It  did  not  command  an  unques- 
tioning reception.  There  were  many  doubters  .  .  .  ;  and  their 
disbelief  was  owing  in  great  part,  no  doubt,  to  the  lack  of  good 
evidence  ;  but  also,  we  must  allow,  to  the  fact  that  the  idea  was  a 
new  one.  No  one  can  accept  Theobald's  account  of  the  murder 
as  a  thing  done  every  year  by  the  most  cultured  and  enlightened 
Jews  of  Europe :  but  as  the  result  of  accident,  or  as  the  deed  of 
an  insane  or  superstitious  Jew,  it  is  not  incredible."  What  we 
have  to  account  for  is  the  origination  of  the  idea  :  and  on  the 
whole  it  is  most  probable  that  it  originated  in  fact. 

^  S.  Williatn  of  Norwich,  p.  21. 


326  The  English  Saints 

It  was  this  which  made  the  monks  of  Norwich 
answer  boldly  to  those  who  denied  that  there  was  a 
martyrdom  at  all — "  As  to  that  which  is  urged  against 
us  '  Martirem  pciia  non  facit  sed  causa,'  we  too  agree  that 
it  is  so.  But  verily  we  have  seen  the  marks  of  the 
sufferings  on  the  holy  William's  body  and  it  is  plain 
that  the  cause  of  those  sufferings  was  Christ,  in  scorn 
of  whom  he  was  condemned  and  slain.  In  like  manner 
and  for  the  same  reason  it  was  not  their  sufferings  which 
earned  for  the  holy  Innocents  the  glory  of  martyrdom, 
but  the  grace  of  Christ,  Who  was  the  cause  of  their 
death. "^  It  was  a  modern  parallel  to  the  Innocents,  to 
the  boy-martyrs  Celsus^  and  Pancras."^  S.  William  of 
Norwich  soon  came  to  rank  among  the  most  popular 
saints  of  England,  with  S.  Edmund  the  King  and 
S.  Thomas  of  Canterbury.^  One  of  the  last  records  of 
the  English  chronicler  was  that  of  the  English  boy  who 
suffered  for  Christ.  It  was  in  Stephen's  day,  when 
"  men  said  openly  that  Christ  slept  and  His  saints," 
that  "the  Jews  of  Norwich  bought  a  Christian  child 
before  Easter  and  tortured  him  with  all  the  same  tor- 
ments with  which  our  Lord  was  tortured  ;  and  on  Long 
Friday  they  hanged  him  on  the  road  for  our  Lord's  love 
and  afterwards  buried  him.  They  thought  that  it 
would  be  hidden  but  our  Lord  manifested  that  he  was 
an  holy  martyr :  and  the  monks  took  him  and  buried 
him    honourably   in    the    Minster,    and    he    performs, 

1  6'.  William  of  Norwich^  p.  96. 

""  Acta  .v.?.,  Jan.  9.     He  is  not  s^iven  by  Alban  Butler  or  Baring- 
Gould. 

^  S.  Gregory,  Epp.  iv.  18,  vi.  49. 

''  See  S.  William  of  Norwich,  pp.  289  sqq. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    327 

through  our  Lord,  wonderful  and  manifold  miracles,  and 
he  is  called  Saint  William."^ 

The  truth  or  falsehood  of  the  case  of  William  of 
Norwich  can  hardly  be  considered  apart  from  the  other 
cases,  which  occurred  within  a  few  years  of  his  death. 
In  1 1 68  a  boy  named  Harold  was  alleged  to  have  been 
murdered  by  the  Jews  at  Gloucester:-  in  1181  "the 
holy  boy  Robert  was  martyred  and  buried"  in  the 
Abbey  of  S.  Edmund  :'^  at  an  unknown  date  a  boy 
named  Herbert  suffered  at  Huntingdon  :*  and  in  1192  a 
boy  was  said  to  have  been  murdered  by  the  Jews  at 
Winchester.^  In  1244  the  body  of  a  boy  was  found  in 
London  with  Hebrew  letters  written  or  painted  on  the 
limbs  and  trunk,  and  signs  of  torture.  He  was  buried 
in  S.  Paul's  with  great  ceremony .*5  In  1255  occurred 
the  case  most  notable  of  all  next  to  that  of  S.  William. 
It  was  said  that  a  great  assembly  of  Jews  from  all 
England  after  a  mock  trial  murdered  a  little  boy  named 
Hugh  with  mimicry  of  the  crucifixion.^     He  had    last 

^  ^.-S.  C/ifon.  after  year  1137.  See  Earle  and  Plummer,  ii. 
311-12.  The  "buying"  miyht  be  substantiated  from  Thomas  of 
Monmouth,  but  is  contrary  to  the  view  of  John  of  Tynemouth, 
Nova  Legenda^  ii.  452. 

Hist.  S.  Pet.  Glo.,  i.  20. 

"  Jocehn  of  Brakelond,  Cliron..,  p.  12.  Jocelin  wrote  an  account 
of  the  martyrdom  and  miracles  wliich  is  lost. 

*  Chron.  Melrose.,  p.  91. 

^''  Richard  of  Devizes,  Chrou.,  p.  435. 

0  Matthew  Paris,  iv.  377-8. 

'^  Matthew  Paris,  v.  516-18:  Nova  Legenda,  ii.  39-41:  both  in 
considerable  detail.  See  Letters  of  Henry  ///.,  ed.  Shirley,  p.  no. 
See  also  Little  S.  Hugh  of  Lincoln,  boy  and  warty r.  Lend.,  1894, 
reprinted  from  the  Jewish  Chronicle.  A  thirteenth  century  French 
poetic  version  of  the  story  was  edited  by  M.  Francisque  Michel, 
1834. 


328  The  English  Saints 

been  seen  entering  a  Jew's  house,  and  his  body  was 
found  at  the  bottom  of  a  well.  A  Jew,  perhaps  from 
fear,  or  hope  to  escape,  declared  that  he  had  been 
crucified,  according  to  a  common  custom  of  the  Jews, 
as  a  Paschal  offering.  For  this  many  Jews  were 
arrested  :  and  it  seems  that  the  crime  was  so  far  brought 
home  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  king's  justices  in  London 
that  eighteen  suffered  for  it.  The  cult  of  S.  Hugh  grew 
rapidly.  He  was  buried  in  Lincoln  Minster,  his  tomb 
was  a  favourite  place  of  pilgrimage  for  centuries,  and 
his  fame  far  surpassed  that  of  any  other  Lincolnshire 
saint. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  account  for  the  firm  belief  all 
over  England  in  these  charges  if  there  was  no  founda- 
tion for  any  of  them.^  The  cases  of  insult  by  the  Jews, 
practically  safe  under  the  royal  protection,  of  sacred 
emblems  and  processions,  are  undoubted.  The  cruel 
attacks  on  Jews  were  clearly  not  unprovoked  by  in- 
solence and  greediness.  The  position  of  the  Jews,  with 
special  privileges  and  protections  yet  alien  from  the 
sympathies  of  those  among  whom  they  chose  to  dwell, 
was  bitterly  resented  by  the  people.  But  the  clergy  and 
the  monks  spoke  almost  invariably  with  the  fullest 
charity.^  The  Canon  Law  expressly  stated  that  Jews 
are  not  to  be  baptized  against  their  w  ill  or  to  be  con- 

'  Bishop  Stubbs  said  once  in  my  hearing  that  while  the  stories 
were  too  numerous  to  be  all  true  they  were  too  numerous  10  be  all 
void  of  credit. 

-  With  the  exception  of  Thomas  of  Monmouth  almost  every 
chronicler  speaks  with  reticence  upon  these  cases  of  alleged  ritual- 
murder  ;  and  outrages  on  the  Jews  are  hardly  ever  approved. 
Thomas  Wykes,  Chron.^  p.  141,  speaks  of  tlie  slaughter  of  Jews  in 
1264  as  inhuman  and  impious. 


Women  and  Children  among  the  Saints    329 

demned  without  justice  or  spoiled  of  their  goods  or 
disturbed  at  their  festivals  or  their  cemeteries  to  be 
molested.^  And  S.  Bernard's  famous  protest  against 
ill  usage  of  the  Jews  is  typical  of  the  attitude  which  the 
Church  assumed  to  those  whom  she  longed  to  win  to 
the  love  of  God  in  Christ.-  In  no  case  save  only  that 
of  little  S.  Hugh  was  any  Jew  punished  for  this  crime, 
however  strong  the  contemporary  writers  show  the 
popular  suspicion  to  have  been  :  and  in  that  case  many 
of  those  charged  were  released  on  the  urgent  interces- 
sion of  the  Mendicant  Friars.^ 

Judged  as  illustrations  of  medieval  feeling  the  stories 
of  S.  Hugh,  S.  William,  and  the  rest  are  most  to  be 
noticed  for  the  pathos  and  sentiment  with  which 
they  are  told.  They  show  an  intimate  sympathy  with 
child-life,  a  tendency  to  idealize  it,  an  endeavour  to 
apply  the  Redeemer's  saying  "  of  such  is  the  kingdom 
of  heaven."  The  signiticance  of  each  story, — it  is  im- 
possible to  doubt  it  as  they  are  studied,  and  as  the  out- 
ward expression  of  the  cult  in  each  case  is  traced — does 
not  lie  in  hatred  to  the  Jews,  but  in  love  and  compassion 
for  children  and  especially  the  children  of  the  poor. 
Those  who  worshipped  at  the  shrines  of  S.  Hugh  and 
S.  William  were  the  childless,  priests  and  monks  and 
lonely  women  ;  and  the  tears  which  might  have  fallen 
over  the  pains  or  the  sins  of  a  son  were  shed  at 
the    grave   which    represented    an    ideal    of   child-life, 

'  Corpus  juris  Canonici,  Friedebeig,  ii.,  cc.  771-8,  quoted  by 
Jacobs,  y^wi'  of  Angevin  England,  p.  183. 

-  M.  Bouquet,  xv.,  606.  See  Cotter  Morison,  Life  (f  S.  Bernard, 
p.  375.     S.  Bernard  Epist.  365. 

3  Matthew  Paris,  v.  519,  546.  552.     Burton  Annah,  346. 


330  The  English  Saints 

pure,    simple,    holy,   resting    trustfully   in    the    love    of 
God.^ 

^  A  curious  tale,  a  sort  of  inverted  version  of  those  mentioned 
above,  is  given  by  Gregory  of  Tours,  Lih'i  Miraculoriim  vi :  de 
glo7-ia  inartyj-uvi^  cap.  lo  (ed.  Migne,  ff.  714-15).  A  Jewish 
boy  of  Bourges  who  went  to  school  with  Christians  one  day 
received  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  with  them.  When  he 
returned  home  his  father  put  him  into  a  furnace,  in  which  he  was 
preserved,  and  saw  a  vision  of  the  15.  V.  AL,  till  the  Christians 
hearing  of  it  rescued  him,  and  thrust  liis  father  into  the  flames 
where  he  perished  immediately.  Cf.  Evagrius,  Hist.  Ecd.  (cd. 
Hidez  &  Parmentier,  1898),  lib.  iv.  c.  36. 


LECTURE  VIII 

THE    COMPLETION    OF    FAITH 

"  Compassed   about   with    so   great   a   cloud   of   witnesses  .  . 
looking    unto    Jesus,    the    Leader    and    Finisher    of     Faith." — 
Hebrews  xii.  i,  2. 

In  illustrating  the  effect  upon  national  character  of  the 
doctrine  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  it  has 
been  attempted  to  set  forth,  by  representative  examples, 
the  witness  of  Faith,  to  show  it  as  it  affected  the  lives 
of  Englishmen — how,  gradually,  from  Gaul  and  Celt, 
from  Roman  and  Teuton,  there  was  evolved  the  type 
of  Christian  character  which  we  know  to-day. 

As  we  turn  back  to  those  old  days  when  Faith,  as 
Christians  know  it,  was  young,  and  the  ways  of  Christ 
were  untrodden  by  many  feet,  to  the  time  before  the 
responsibility  of  knowledge  pressed  heavily  on  ancient 
and  stable  nations  who  owe  their  civilization  to  the 
law  and  devotion  of  the  Church,  it  may  be  that  the 
severance  between  our  lives  and  theirs  seems  more 
real  than  the  similarity.  But  at  least  we  cannot  neglect 
the  debt  that  we  owe  to  those  who  first  taught  our 
fathers  in  the  name  of  Christ.  Those  who  have  least 
sympathy  with  the  system  of  Catholicism  are  not  the 
last  to  admit  its  services  to  religion  and  humanity. 
[  331  J 


332  The  English  Saints 

"  No  modern  Church,"  says  an  eminent  Presbyterian 
writer,  "  is  yet  great  enough  to  despise  the  medieval 
Church — the  Church  which,  with  all  its  faults,  was  by 
far  the  mightiest  and  most  beneficent  agent  in  the 
formation  of  Christendom  out  of  barbarism  and  con- 
fusion."^ 

And  of  all  the  legacies  which  the  Middle  Ages 
bequeathed  there  is  none  so  precious  as  the  developed 
Christian  character,  the  imitation  of  Christ  as  it  is 
revealed  in  the  lives  of  the  saints,  the  witness  of  Faith 
in  that  encompassing  cloud  which  shadows  us  as  the 
world  advances  on  its  way. 

So  much  we  must  say  as  we  complete  our  survey  of 
the  medieval  saints.  Types  have  been  set  before  us  in 
which  the  witness  of  Faith  is  visiblj'  expressed,  t}'pes 
which  have  tried,  with  varying  success,  to  image  forth 
the  Divine  Manhood  as  it  worked  in  national  character 
and  in  the  circumstances  of  different  lives.  Kings  and 
missionaries,  hermits  and  statesmen,  scholars,  monks, 
women,  the  pathos  of  suffering  childhood,  all  have 
been  made  to  furnish  the  witness  of  the  Saints  to  the 
faith  in  God. 

Why  do  we  pause  at  this  crisis  of  our  national  history, 
at  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  Renaissance 
and  the  Reformation  gave  to  men  wider  outlook, 
greater  liberty,  and  those  not  least  in  the  household 
of  the  Church  ?  Because,  it  may  suffice  for  the 
moment  to  answer,  it  was  then  that  the  national 
character  was  seen  to  be  formed.  Such  as  Englishmen 
had  become  then,  such  they  have  remained. 

Ideas,  as  the  years  went  on,  were  made  emphatic,  or 
1  Professor  Robert  Flint,  D.D.,  Ai^nosticism  (1903),  p.  483. 


The  Completion  of  Faith  333 

vivified  into  life,  and  each  as  it  worked  left  its  impress 
on  the  lives  of  men.  In  the  Reformation  the  search 
for  the  absolute  truth  of  God  as  He  has  revealed  it  to 
men  ;  in  the  struggles  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
deep  sense  of  the  binding  force  which  links  together  the 
expression  of  human  thought  in  the  Church  and  in  the 
State,  and  the  loyalty  to  the  powers  ordained  of  God 
which  is  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament ;  the 
strength  of  a  vivid  assurance  of  God's  Personal  action 
in  mercy  to  the  individual  soul  through  the  Evangelical 
movement  of  the  eighteenth  century;  the  consciousness 
of  corporate  fellowship  in  the  Divine  Society  which  is 
the  Body  of  Christ — all  these  were  vividly  presented  in 
their  effects  on  the  lives  of  Englishmen,  and  each  has 
left  some  great  name  as  a  shining  example  of  its  power. 
But  not  one  of  them  was  a  new  idea,  not  one  was 
unknown  to  the  medieval  Church,  or  without  its  repre- 
sentative figure  among  the  medieval  saints. 

The  English  character  had  reached  maturity :  since 
then  the  changes  have  been  only  those  subtle  ones 
which,  as  in  the  character  of  men  and  women  indi- 
vidually, it  is  so  hard  to  estimate  or  to  trace.  Change 
there  is,  undoubtedly  :  changes  there  are  that  may  be 
feared  or  hoped  for  ;  but  the  main  lines  are  the  same. 

It  may  be  said  of  the  English  character,  as  Burke 
said  of  the  English  constitution,  that  "  in  what  we 
improve  we  are  never  wholly  new,  in  what  we  retain 
we  are  never  wholly  obsolete."^  Liberty  and  honour  : 
those  are  the  achievements  on  which  most  English- 
men would  still  pride  themselves,  the  treasures  which 
we  should  still  claim  to  be  the  national  heritage  in 
*  Reflections  on  the  French  Re7>oIittion,  1 790,  p.  48. 


334  The  English  Saints 

the  Church  of  Christ.  And  they  carry  with  them 
more. 

The  EngHshman,  it  has  been  well  said,  "  takes  with 
him  wherever  he  goes  a  notion  of  liberty  which  is 
associated  with  duty  and  justice."^  It  is  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  strong  firm  national  type  which 
has  been  prominent  for  centuries :  and  "  valour  and 
good  faith  "  are  set  beside  it  as  the  qualities  which 
Englishmen  have  always  claimed  as  their  own.  And 
they  are  the  qualities  which  are  most  eloquent  in  the 
lives  of  the  English  saints.  You  may  go  back  over  our 
list  and  trace  them  every^\•here  :  and  with  them  also 
you  will  see  how  the  holy  men  who  set  these  patterns 
by  the  grace  of  Christ  have  left  their  impress  set  in- 
delibly upon  the  name  of  Englishman. 

How  in  some  virtues,  in  some  qualities  of  the  Divine 
Nature  as  Jesus  imaged  it  among  men,  our  nation 
remains  deficient,  no  candid  observer  will  fail  to  see. 
The  complete  humility  of  Francis  of  Assisi,  the  mental 
absorption  in  God  of  S.  Teresa,  the  fiery  enthusiasm  of 
S.  Francis  Xavier,  perhaps  the  true  chivalry  of  S.  Louis, 
are  not  unknown  among  us,  but  they  are  rare.  We 
have  our  own  defects  as  well  as  the  strength  of  our 
ancestors,  and  they  are  those  which  acute  inquirers  saw 
four  hundred  years  ago.'' 

So,  not  unfitly,  at  the  epoch  of  Reformation,  there 
closed  for  us  in  England  the  canon  of  the  saints.^    It  is 

^  Bishop  Creighton,  Romanes  Lecture. 

-  Cf.  Venetian  Relation  of  England  {\.QXVi^.  Hen.  \'II.).  Camden 
Society. 

•'  Tlie  phrase  is  not  a  technical  or  accurate  one,  but  it  is  con- 
venient and  I  think  permissilile. 


The  Completion  of  Faith  335 

not  that  the  society  in  which  these  Hves  were  cherished 
can  no  longer  bring  forth  fruit  in  perfection  :  but  not 
unnaturally  or  unwisely  the  technical  expression  of  it, 
the  formal  recognition  won  in  past  times,  has  ceased  to 
be  given. 

And  yet  this  silence  is  not  unbroken.  The  English 
Church  in  the  stress  of  her  great  movement  of  reform 
did  not  ignore  the  past.  In  the  Kalendar  as  Church 
and  State  alike  sanctioned  it  there  was  the  studied 
commemoration  of  the  work  of  those  saints  who  in  a 
peculiar  sense  illustrate  English  history,  and  there  was 
also  as  markedly  a  recognition  of  the  shadowing 
sorrows  that  beset  the  life  of  Christian  faith.  And  in 
one  name  the  reformed  English  Church  seemed  to  see 
those  two  thoughts  united. 

A  great  Oxford  man  of  letters  in  one  of  his  volumes 
of  luminous  criticism  which  he  collected,  touched  with 
a  sympathetic  insistence  on  the  pathos  of  English 
kingship^ — on  that  note  of  sadness  which  runs  through 
the  lives  of  those  set  above  others  in  this  land  and 
makes  them  akin  to  the  lowest  by  the  fellowship  of 
suffering.  It  is  a  thought  familiar  to  all  those  who  have 
read  the  lives  of  the  saints.  It  is  a  sentiment  that  has 
never  been  forgotten.  It  might  seem  that  it  was  this 
aspect  of  our  monarchy  which  Shakespeare  especially 
elected  to  dwell  upon:-. in  this  lies  the  distinction  of 
his  tragical  histories.    It  is  not  merely  the  thought  that 

"  Happy  low  lie  down  ; 
Uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears  a  crown  :" 

^  Walter  Pater,  Appreciations,  pp.  192-212. 

'^  Another  aspect  of  Shakespeare's  view,  the  moral,  is  dwelt  upon 
by  Canon  H.  C.  Beeching  in  a  sermon,  S.  Luke  xviii.  14,  printed 
in  the  ChiircJi  Family  Neiuspapcr,  August  15,  1902. 


336  The  English  Saints 

nor  even  the  vast  weight  of  responsibihty  which  hangs 
upon  one  who  has  a  nation  in  his  charge— 

"  Upon  the  king  I  let  us  our  lives,  our  souls, 
Our  debts,  our  careful  wives,  our  children  and 
Our  sins  lay  on  the  king.      IVe  must  bear  all  " — 

but  that  the  pains  and  miseries  common  to  humanity 
seem  to  touch  those  in  highest  station  with  a  doubly- 
sharpened  barb  :   and  so  verily 

"  'Tis  better  to  be  lowly  born 
And  range  with  humble  livers  in  content 
Than  to  be  perk'd  up  in  a  glistering  grief 
And  wear  a  golden  sorrow." 

They  stand  above  us,  so  Shakespeare  seems  to  say, 
and  while  they  are  the  very  fellows  of  our  nature,  yet 
there  is  an  added  pathos  in  their  lives.  They  share 
our  sorrows  to  the  full  ;  and,  further,  there  is  that  in 
their  position,  which  to  themselves  as  well  as  in  the 
pubhc  gaze  wherein  they  stand,  makes  grief  more 
grievous  and  the  pathos  of  life  more  pathetic  still. 
Nor  is  this  a  mere  literary  exaggeration  of  the  great 
master  of  poetic  art ;  there  is  something  in  the  feeling 
which  we  recognize  as  entirely  true.  There  is  a  dis- 
tinctness and  a  vividness  in  the  lives  round  which 
English  history  centres  which  is  not  due  solely  to  their 
intrinsic  greatness,  or  to  the  fulness  of  our  knowledge 
of  them,  or  to  anything  in  itself  remarkable  in  the 
record  of  their  deeds,  but  to  a  certain  pitifulness  which 
the  heart  of  the  people  age  after  age  has  recognized, 
and  clung  to,  and  made  immortal.  The  legend  of  the 
imprisoned  hero  answering  the  voice  of  his  minstrel ; 
or  the  touching  figure  of  the  boy  held  up  to  the  view  of 
his  people  in   his  last  days  of  mortal   weakness  ;  the 


The  Completion  of  Faith  337 

pathetic  dignity  of  the  unhappy  man  whose  sad  fate 
blotted  out  the  memory  of  his  errors  and  made  him  a 
martyr  in  the  eyes  of  the  next  generations  ;  the  piteous 
story  of  the  old  king  awakening  the  solemn  strains  of 
the  organ  till  their  very  grandeur  overpowered  him  and 
with  a  flood  of  tears  he  relapsed  into  hopeless  insanity  : 
these  are  instances  that  have  appealed  deeply  to  men's 
hearts. 

Sharply  the  lives  of  Kings  stand  out :  and  more  than 
ever  was  this  felt  in  the  stormy  days  that  came  with 
the  reformation  of  the  English  Church.  Henry  VIII., 
with  his  mastering  passions,  Elizabeth,  with  her  tact 
and  her  virtues  of  public  life,  were  ever  in  their  sub- 
jects' eye.  The  language  of  courtly  veneration  made 
a  new  literature  of  its  own.  And  when  all  this  was 
brought  to  the  sharp  test  of  civil  strife,  when  blood 
flowed  freely,  and  hearts  were  bitter  in  assault  and  in 
revenge,  it  was  round  "the  Lord's  Anointed"  that  the 
struggle  raged.  So  in  the  moment  of  supreme  crisis 
all  thoughts  were  turned  to  him  who  was,  who  had 
been,  King.  England  looked  back,  after  the  years  of 
war  and  tumult,  out  of  the  mist  of  private  suffering  and 
public  discontent,  to  the  days  so  long  ago  when  she 
could  point  to  her  Kings  as  suffering  among  the  people. 
Charles  I.  seemed  to  revive  the  memory  of  Henry  VI., 
as  Henry  VI.  had  made  men  think  of  the  confessors 
and  martyrs  before  the  Conquest.^ 

1  From  the  mass  of  literature  illustrating  what  may  fitly  be 
called  the  cultus  of  Charles,  King  and  Martyr,  the  following  is 
a  representative,  though  inadequate,  list:  (i)  Reliqidcc  Sacra 
CarolincE;  or  the  works  of  that  great  monarch  and  glorious 
martyr  King  Charles  I.  Hague,  1650.  (2)  Sylloge  variorum, 
1649.     (This  contains  his  letters,  etc.,  and  a  Latin  version  of  the 

22 


338  Tnic  English  Saints 

The  close  association  between  Church  and  State  in 
England  which  was  emphasi;^ed  b\-  the  Reformation 
led  inevitably  to  the  claim  of  saintliness  and  martyr- 
dom for  the  King  who  shed  his  blood  on  the  scaffold. 


other  accounts  of  his  death.)     (3)  Attributed  in  the  Bodleian  Cata- 
logue (following  Halkett  and  Laing,  Diet,  of  Annn.  Li/.)Xo  Browne 
(Robert)    The   Subject's  Sorrow,  lamentations  upon  the   death  of 
Britaine's  Josinh,  King  Charles.     (There   is  really  not  sufficient 
evidence  to  decide  upon  the  authorship  of  this  tract.)     (4)  Philipps 
(Fabian)  King  Charles  I.  no  man  of  blood  but  a  Martyr  for  his 
people.     1649,   4°.  (a   full    enquiry  whether   the    King   began    the 
war).     (5)  AeterncB  memorice  et  Sanctis  manibus  Caroli  /.,  /Inglice 
proto-inartyris-regii  sacrum  (Lat.  and  English,  also  French  poems), 
in  Vaticinium  votivum  or  Palcemo7i's prophetick  prayer.    Utrecht  [?] 
1649.      (6)  P.  Molineux,  Canon  of   Canterbury,  Regii  Sanguinis 
clamor  ad  ca'lum  adversus  patricidas  angiicanos.     Hague,    1652 
(a  defence  and  support  of  Salmasius.     Milton  is  thus  spoken  of 
(p.  g),  "  Ouis  et  unde  dubium,  homone  an  vermis  heri  &  sterqui- 
linio  editus.")     It  says  (p.  85)  that  Juxon  declared  that  the  King 
especially  ordered  him  to  tell  the  Prince  as  the  last  command  of 
his  dying  father  not  to  punish  his  murderers.     (7)  The  last  counsel 
of  a   Martyred  King    to    his    Son,    1660   (gives    his   last   letter 
Nov.  26,   1648,  to  his  son  and  his  conversation  with  Juxon  and 
aji  Elegie).     (8)  Blood  for  Blood,  or  Murthers  Revenged.     Oxford, 
i65i.     (An  account  of  King  Charles  the  Martyr,  Montrose  and 
Argyle,  Overbury  and  Turner,  Sands  and  his  two  sons,  Knight  and 
Butler.     It  is  a  series  of  talcs  chiefly  of  adultery  and  murder,  to 
which    is   added   a   sort  of   religious   aspect   by   the   tale  of   the 
avenging   of    Charles     I.)      (9)    The   character    of  that  glorious 
martyred  King  Charles  I.,  being  a  brief  description  of  his  religious 
rei£^n,G\.c.    Lond.,  1660.    (10)  The  faithful,  yet  imperfect,  character 
of  a  glorious  King,  King  Charles  I.,  his  country s  and  religion's 
martyr.     Lond.,   1660.      (11)    The  Ki}ig  advafici?tg.  .  .  .     Lond., 
1660.     (A   poem    in    Latin    and   English   entitled   Magni  Manes 
Caroli  regis  et  martyris.)     (12)  Glanville  (Rev.  Joseph)  A   loyal 
tear  dropped  on  the  vault  of  our  late  martyred  sovereign.  .  .  . 
Rom.  xiii.  2.     Lond.,   1667.      (13)  A   sober  and  reasonable   com- 
memoration of  the  2>oth  day  offa?iuary,  1648,  being  the  day  of  the 


The  Completion  of  Faith  339 

To  those  who  suffered  under  the  stern  rule  of  Crom- 
well, and  to  those  who  restored  the  Stewart  to  the 
throne,  England  seemed  to  have  heen  at  the  mercy  of 
men  "  who  were  engaged  in  the  black  design  of  sub- 


martyrdom  of  King  Charles  I.  Lond.,  1681.  (Sing-le  leaf  folio, 
broad- sheet).  (14)  On  the  inariyrdoin  of  King  Charles  /.,  n 
Pindaric  ode.  Lond.,  1683.  {i'^)  Our  modern  demagogues  inodesiy- 
.  .  .  a  vindication  of  the  royal  nmrtyr's  sacred  memory  from  the 
antiquated    calumnies  of  the   villain    Milton  .  .  .  (circa    1689.) 

(16)  A  Just  defence  of  the  Royal  Martyr  from  the  tnafiy  false 
and    malicious  aspersions   in    Ludlow's   Memoirs.      Lond.,    1699. 

(17)  Memoirs  of  the  t%vo  last  years  of  the  reign  of  that  un- 
paralleled Ptince  Charles  /.,  l>y  Sir  Tho.  Herbert  .  .  .  with  the 
character  of  that  blessed  martyr,  by  the  Rev.  John  Diodati.  .  .  . 
Lond.,  1702.  (18)  A  vindication  of  the  royal  martyr  from  the 
Irish  massacre  ift  1641.  Lond.,  1750.  (19)  A  voice  from  the 
shades ;  or  the  death  and  sufferings  of  the  royal  martyr  revival. 
Also  the  speeches  and  sufferings  of  the  Earl  of  Strafford  and  Arch- 
bishop Laud,  whose  speeches  may  serve  as  a  perpetual  memorial 
of  those  times.  Lond.,  1709.  (20)  Monarchy  sacrificed  .  .  . 
speeches  of  the  royal  martyr.  King  Charles  I.  Lond.,  17 10. 
(This  like  the  last  is  a  collection  of  speeches  on  the  scaffold.) 
(21)  The  royal  martyr :  or,  a  poem  on  the  martyrdo)n  of  King 
Charles  I.  Lond.,  17 15.  (22)  An  attetnpt  towards  the  character  of 
the  royal  tnarlyr.  King  Charles  I.  Lond.,  1738.  (23)  The  case  of 
the  royal  martyr  co7isidered  with  candour,  vol.  ii.  Lond.,  1758. 
(24)  A  melius  inquirendum  into  the  character  of  the  royal  martyr, 
King  Charles  I.  Lond.,  1758.  A  vindication  :  very  bitter  against 
Milton. 

I  make  this  very  brief  selection  from  an  enormous  mass  of  litera- 
ture as  roughly  illustrative  of  the  different  forms  in  which  the  King's 
martyrdom  was  commemorated.  A  full  and  elaborate  work  on 
the  King,  with  a  complete  account  of  the  cultus,  has  been  prepared 
by  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Greville  Nugent.  She  has  kindly  sent  me  some 
most  interesting  notes  of  her  researches.  I  have  not  incorporated 
them,  as  I  found  my  studies  were  taking  a  somewhat  different 
direction  :  but  I  hope  that  the  work,  which  should  be  of  great 
value  and  interest,  may  soon  be  published.     The  book  is  entitled 

22 — 2 


340  The  English  Saints 

verting  the  constitution  of  their  country."^  Those  are 
the  words  of  a  cahn  thinker  whom  no  "enthusiasm" 
misled :  and  when  he  came  to  speak  of  the  death  of 
King  Charles  he  could  only  describe  it  as  the  crisis 
of  the  time  when  "  our  Constitution  in  Church  and 
State  [was]  destroyed  under  pretence  not  only  of 
religion,  but  of  securing  liberty,  and  carrying  it  to  a 
greater  height."- 

Charles  was  taken  as  having  died  to  preserve  the 
Constitution.  The  claim  that  he  made  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  was  accepted.  The  Church  regarded 
him  as  having  perished  in  defence  of  his  trust. 

It  was  clear  from  the  first  what  form  the  com- 
memoration would  take. 

The  cult  of  Charles  as  a  martyr  began  immediately 
on  his  death,  though  its  earliest  manifestations  had  to 
be,  however  thinly,  veiled.  Within  a  few  days  was 
published  a  tract  entitled  "  The  Devilish  Conspiracy, 
Hellish  Treason,  Heathenish  Condemnation,  and 
Damnable  Murder,  committed  and  executed  by  the 
lewes,  against  the  Anointed  of  the  Lord,  Christ  their 
King,  and  the  just  Judgment  of  God  severely  executed 
upon  those  Traytors  and  Murderers.  As  it  was  de- 
livered in  a  Sermon  on  the  4  Feb.  1648,"  {i.e.,  1649). 

Flos  Regum,  and  its  accomplished  author  writes  to  me  that  its 
object  is  to  reawaken  interest  in  "our  own,  our  royal  saint,"  and 
to  prove  "  that  he  really  was  canonized  and  venerated  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  to  try  to  combat  this  (^//rtjZ-decanonization 
which  political  complications  and  other  regrettable  things  have, 
alas  !  brought  about  in  some  measure."  The  interest  in  the  subject 
both  in  England  and  America  should  cause  the  speedy  publication 
of  this  book. 

'  Bishop  Butler,  Sermons  (ed.  Bernard),  p.  235.      -  J/u'd.^  p.  236. 


The  Completion  of  Faith  341 

This  showed  the  Hnes  on  which  the  veneration  of  the 
King  was  to  follow.  It  was  the  position  which  was  at 
once  claimed  for  him  by  the  earliest  preachers.  Henry 
Leslie,  who  preached  before  the  King's  children  at 
Breda,  when  the  news  came  of  the  execution,  elabor- 
ately compared  the  sufferings  of  Charles  to  those  of  his 
Divine  Master,  and  spoke  of  him  as  "the  best  of  Kings." 
"  Never,"  he  said,  "  was  there  yet  any  Prince  that  sate 
upon  a  Throne,  who  was  beyond  him  for  piety  and 
prudence,  for  all  heroicall  and  Christian  graces."^ 

So  again,  within  a  few  days,  A  Groane  at  the  Funerall 
of  that  incomparable  and  glorious  Martyr,  Charles  the  First 
(written  by  J.  B.,  1649)  contains  the  lines  : 

"  Pilate's  consent  is  Bradshaw's  sentence  here  : 
The  Judgment  Hall's  removed  to  Westminster. 
Hayle  to  the  Reeden  Scepter  ;  th'  Head  and  knee 
Act  o'er  againe  that  Cursed  Pageantrie. 

*  *  *  *  * 

The  Church  in  Thee  had  still  her  A'-inies  ;  thus 
The  world  once  fought  with  Athanasius." 

The  same  is  the  tone  of  sermons  and  apologies  for 
many  years :  Charles  gave  his  life  for  his  people,  men 
said.  Rather  than  consent  to  wrong,  he  died.  It 
was  thus  that,  in  the  steps  of  his  Master,  he  followed 
S.  Edmund  and  S.  Alphege  in  the  way  of  martyrdom. 

In  making  this  claim  for  her  royal  son  the  Church  of 
England — whatever  members  of  her  communion,  clerk 
and  lay,  might  do— set  forth  no  impossible   position. 

^  The  Martyrdoi/te  of  K.  Charles,  or  his  conformity  with  Christ 
in  His  sufferings.  A  sermon  on  i  Cor.  ii.  8,  preached  at  Breda 
before  Charles  H.  and  the  Prince  of  Orange;  original  edition, 
Hague  (S.  Brown),  1649  !  London,  said  to  be  reprint  (or  was  it 
original  ?),  1649.     By  Henry,  Lord  Bishop  of  Down  and  Connor. 


342  The  English  Saints 

*'  It  is  as  natural,"  said  Keble,  when  he  preached  before 
the  University  of  Oxford  on  the  day  of  King  Charles 
the  Martyr,  "  that  the  Church  of  England  should  keep 
this  day  as  it  is  that  Christ's  universal  Church  should 
keep  S.  Stephen's  martyrdom." 

But  it  was  no  strained  assertion  of  spotless  innocence 
that  was  made  when  this  was  said.  Sanctity  never 
implied  infallibility.  No  one  in  those  days  claimed 
to  be  infallible,  theologically  or  morall}'.  Rather  the 
Church  declared  that  here  was  one  who  had  struggled 
hard  to  live  according  to  the  law  of  Christ,  who  had 
fallen  and  been  raised  again,  and  who  at  last  gave  up 
his  life  for  a  cause  that  was  the  highest  he  knew. 
"  Had  Charles,"  declared  a  great  historian  and  bishop 
whose  memory  is  still  green  among  us  here,  "been 
willing  to  abandon  the  Church,  and  give  up  Episco- 
pacy, he  might  have  saved  his  throne  and  his  life. 
But  on  this  point  Charles  stood  firm  ;  for  this  he  died, 
and  by  dying  saved  it  for  the  future."^ 

Theologically,  the  position   that  Charles  had  main- 


^  Bishop  Creighton  (1895,  Laud  Coininemoiatioii  Lectures,  p.  25). 

•^  E.g.,  see  Reliquicc  Sao  a  Carolince  (printed  by  Samuel  Browne 
at  the  Hague,  1650;  a  small  thick  octavo).  This  contains  the 
papers  written  at  Newcastle  and  at  Carisbrooke,  all  showing  a 
steady  adherence  to  the  Church  and  emphasis  on  the  Apostolic 
Succession.  I:  g.,  p.  199,  His  Majesty  s  second  paper:  "When  I 
am  made  a  judge  over  the  Reformed  Churches,  then,  and  not  before, 
will  I  censure  their  actions  ;  as  you  must  prove,  before  I  confess  it, 
that  Presbyters  without  a  Bislwp  may  lawfully  ordain  other  Pres- 
byters;  and  as  for  the  Administration  of  Baptism,  as  1  think  none 
will  say,  that  a  Woman  can  lawfully,  or  duly  administer  it,  though 
when  done,  it  be  valid  ;  so  none  ought  to  do  it,  but  a  lawful  Pres- 
byter, whom  you  cannot  deny  but  to  be  absolutely  necessary  for 
tlic  Sacrament  of  the  Eucharist." 


The  Completion  of  Faith  343 

Church  remembered  "  the  tragedy  of  the  royal  martyr, 
itself  the  sealing  of  the  crown  of  England  in  the  faith  of 
the  Church."^     His  declaration  at  Newport  was  explicit : 

"  I  conceive  that  Episcopal  Government  is  most 
consonant  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  of  an  apostolical 
institution,  as  it  appears  by  the  Scripture,  to  have  been 
practised  by  the  Apostles  themselves,  and  by  them 
committed,  and  derived  to  particular  persons  as  their 
substitutes  or  successors  therein  (as  for  ordaining 
Presbyters  and  Deacons,  giving  rules  concerning  Chris- 
tian Discipline,  and  exercising  censures  over  Presbyters 
and  others)  and  hath  ever  since  to  these  last  times  been 
exercised  by  Bishops  in  all  the  Churches  of  Christ, 
and  therefore  I  cannot  in  conscience  consent  to  abolish 
the  said  Government." 

But  not  only  the  cause  made  him  martyr :  there 
was  witness  too  in  the  goodness  of  his  personal  life. 
Though,  as  Laud  said,  he  was  "a  mild  and  gracious 
prince  who  knew  not  how  to  be  or  to  be  made  great," 
and  who  even  might  "  forget  or  deny "  his  word,  he 
was  a  man  who  earnestly  set  his  mind  on  good.  Of  no 
English  King  could  there  be  given  more  simple  record 
of  a  life  that,  with  all  its  failures,  was  lived  in  the  fear 
and  love  of  God.  That  was  the  constant  appeal  of  his 
apologists:  and  no  one  could  meet  it.  When  they 
\\ould  accuse  him  of  sin  it  must  be  for  loving  to  read 
Shakespeare  or  quoting  Philip  Sidney  in  his  prayers. 
Of  grievous  falls,  of  the  death-warrant  of  Strafford,  his 
foes  had  not  the  face  to  speak :  and,  when  those  were 
remembered,  it  was  remembered  also  that,  in  weakness 

1  Bishop  Stubbs,  A  Seriiioii,  February  3,  1901.  [Preached  at 
Windsor,  and  pri\atcly  printed.] 


344  Tiii'-  English  Saints 

often,  he  had  still  tried  to  walk  humbly  and  penitently 
with  God.  Let  us  hear  some  words  that  those  who 
spoke  of  him  could  say. 

Perrinchief  s  "  Royal  Martyr  "'  is  a  ht  example.  It 
makes  no  apology  for  sin,  but  it  claims  the  mercy  of  God : 

"  When  the  State  of  his  Soul  required,  He  was  as 
ready  to  perform  those  more  severe  parts  of  religion 
which  seem  most  distasteful  to  Flesh  and  Blood.  And 
he  never  refused  to  take  to  Himself  the  shame  of  those 
acts  wherein  He  had  transgressed,  that  He  might  give 
glory  to  his  God,  For  after  the  army  had  forced  Him 
from  Holmeby,  and  in  their  several  removes  had 
brought  him  to  Latmas,  an  house  of  the  Earl  of 
Devonshire,  on  Aug.  i,  being  Sunday,  in  the  morning 
before  Sermon  He  led  forth  with  Him  into  the  garden 
the  Reverend  Dr.  Sheldon  (who  then  attended  on  him, 
and  whom  he  was  pleased  to  use  as  His  Confessour), 
and  drawing  out  of  His  pocket  a  paper,  commanded 
him  to  read  it,  transcribe  it,  and  so  to  deliver  it  to 
Him  again.  This  Paper  contained  several  Vows,  which 
He  had  obliged  His  Soul  unto  for  the  Glory  of  His 
Maker,  the  advance  of  true  Piet}-,  and  the  emolument 
of  the  Church.  And  among  them  this  was  one,  that 
he  would  do  Publick  Penance  for  the  Injustice  He 
had  suffered  to  be  done  to  the  Earl  of  Strafford,  His 
consent  to  those  Injuries  that  were  done  to  the  Church 
of  England  (though  at  that  time  He  had  yielded  to  no 
more  than  the  taking  away  of  the  High  Commission 
and  the  Bishops'  power  to  vote  in  Parliament)  and  to 
the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  and  adjured  the  Doctor,  that 
if  ever  he  saw  him  in  a  condition  to  observe  that  or 
any  other  of  those  vows,  he  should  solicitoush-  mind 


The  Completion  of  Faith  345 

Him  of  the  Obligations,  as  he  dreaded  the  guilt  of  the 
breach  should  lie  upon  his  own  soul.  This  voluntary 
submission  to  the  Laws  of  Christianity  exceeded  that 
so  memorable  humiliation  of  the  good  Emperour  Theo- 
dosius,  for  he  never  bewailed  the  blood  of  those  seven 
thousand  men  which  in  three  hours'  space  he  caused 
to  be  spilt  at  Thessalonica,  till  the  resolution  of  S. 
Ambrose  made  him  sensible  of  the  Crime.  But  the 
Piety  of  King  Charles  anticipated  the  severity  of  a 
Confessor  for  those  offences  to  which  He  had  been 
precipitated  by  the  Violence  of  others.  .  .  .  His  Dis- 
course with  Henderson  shews  how  just  a  Reverence 
He  had  for  the  authority  of  the  Catholick  Church, 
against  the  Pride  and  Ignorance  of  Schismaticks ;  yet 
not  to  prostitute  his  faith  to  the  adulterations  of  the 
Roman  Infallibility  and  Traditions."^ 

An  earlier  commemoration,  in  the  year  of  his  death, 
wrote  freely  while  men  still  mourned  : 

"  His  religious  piety  renders  it-selfe  glorious  in  His 
great  love,  feare,  and  honour  of  God;  His  zeale  and 
devout  frequency  in  prayer,  receiving  the  Sacraments, 
and  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures,  His  reverence  in 
God's  house.  His  attention  unto  God's  word  preached 
the  esteeme  He  had  of  God's  messengers,  His  hatred 
of  heresie,  and  the  zealous  care  he  had  (as  it  was  con- 
sistent with  Charity)  to  propagate  the  true  worship  of 
God,  the  Protestant  religion  ;  this  in  the  purity  thereof, 
He  established  by  His  Laws,  enlarged  with  his  Regall 

1  The  Royal  Marty};  London,  1676,  pp.  215,  216.  Cf.  for  the 
King's  vow  Sheldon's  own  full  account,  printed  in  Le  Neve's 
Lives  of  the  Bishops  since  the  Reformation,  1720,  vol.  i.,  part  i., 
pp.  178,  179. 


346  The  English  Saints 

authority,  cleansed  from  that  rust  it  had  contracted 
through  the  atheism  and  ignorance  of  the  times,  by  the 
contemptibleness  of  the  outward  worship,  adorned  with 
decency  and  order  in  the  pubhque  service,  and  with 
cost  upon  the  places  dedicate  unto  that  service ;  but 
chiefly  he  beautified  it  with  the  glorious  example  of  his 
holy  life,  and  encouragement  of  the  officers  thereof, 
whom  he  rewarded  with  the  rewards  of  honour  and 
maintenance  :  His  Royall  Palace  (as  Theodosius 
Juniors)  was  a  constant  receipt  for  Learned  and  pious 
Prelates  whom  he  entertained  and  cherished  as  the 
servants  of  the  Great  God  and  dispenser  of  the 
mysteries  of  grace ;  which  as  it  was  an  especial  and 
infallible  marke  of  the  sincerity  of  his  humble  piety, 
so  through  the  supercilious  irreligion  of  the  times  did 
that  (which  should  have  most  endeared  him  unto 
Christians)  draw  neglect  and  contempt  upon  him  from 
them  (and  those  great  ones  too)  who  love  nothing  of 
Christianity  but  the  naked  name."^ 

He  had,  all  men  admitted,  that  rare  virtue  of  princes, 
an  entire  self-command. 

"  A  prince  he  was,  so  extraordinary  enricht  with 
grace,  that  temptations  seemed  to  assault  him,  to  no 
end  but  to  be  defeated.  Though  he  had  but  three 
Kingdoms,  he  deserved  four  Crowns ;  but  the  most 
splendid  of  all,  for  his  absolute  Empire  over  himself: 
for,  sclf-denyal  which  is  the  task  of  all  other  men,  and 
the  most  harsh  Discipline  in  the  School  of  Christ, 
seemed  to  him  but  recreation  :  He  was  snow  in  the 
midd'st  of  Flames,  and  Fire  in  a  Mass  of  Ice  ;   He  was 

1  77-!^  Suhjecfs  Sorroiv,  attributed  to  Robert  Bro\\ne  (see  also 
p.  338,  note  i),  a  sermon  upon  Lam.  iv.  20  (London,  1649). 


The  Completion  of  Faith  347 

sober  in  the  middest  of  Youth,  when  all  others  are 
loose  and  wild  ;  spotless  in  dispight  of  sanguin  ;  he  was 
humble  in  the  glories  of  a  Court,  which  usually  make 
others  giddy  and  vain."^ 

And  to  the  life  were  added  the  touching  dignities  of 
the  last  scene,  of  his  "second  marriage  day."  To  fit 
himself  for  death  was  no  strange  thing  to  him,  who  had 
for  so  long  twice  daily  in  private  for  an  hour  and  twice 
daily  in  public,  giving  prayer  and  praise  to  God.-^  His 
last  hours  were  wholly  given  to  prayer,  to  thoughts  of 
forgiveness,  and  to  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Body 
and  Blood ;  and  there  came  to  him  in  the  proper  lesson 
of  the  day,  the  27th  chapter  of  S.  Matthew,  the  com- 
fort that  made  him  "  bless  God  it  had  so  fallen  out." 
And  of  the  end,  it  was  no  royalist  that  wrote  the  not  to 
be  forgotten  lines : 

"  He  nothing  common  did,  or  mean, 
Upon  that  memorable  scene. 
But  with  his  keener  eye 
The  axe's  edge  did  try  ; 
Nor  call  the  gods  with  vulgar  spite 
To  vindicate  his  helpless  right, 
But  bowed  his  comely  head 
Down  as  upon  a  bed." 

1  T.  L.,  Sad  Memorials  of  the  Royal  Maityr^  a  sermon  preached 
at  Salisbury  ;  London,  1670,  p.  9.  Cf.  the  Qp-qvudia  sive  elcgia  in 
inJHstissimam  triicidationciii  saiictissinii  prudentissimique  principis 
Caroli  Primi  Magna  Bri/annics  CallicE  ct  Hibcrnio'  iiuperrinie 
Regis,  inhiimanissime  perpctratain  30  die  Januarii  Anno  Sal  lit  is 
Mundi  1648  (1649). 

-  Sir  Philip  Warwick  tells  of  his  regularity  in  devotion,  and 
"  even  when  he  went  a  hunting  he  never  failed  before  he  sat  down 
to  dinner  to  hear  part  of  the  Liturgy  read  to  him  and  his  menial 
servants;"  and  Alexander  Henderson  says  that  at  Newcastle  he 
spent  two  hours  daily  in  private  prayer,  besides  the  two  public 
offices  of  the  Church. 


348  The  English  Saints 

So  he  died,  and  so  the  White  King  was  buried   in  a 
snow-covered  pall. 

His  death  stamped  upon  men's  hearts  the  belief  that 
he  was  a  true  martyr.^  And  there  was  not  wanting  a 
still  more  powerful  agent  in  the  conversion  of  England 
to  the  veneration  of  his  memory.  The  Eikun  Basilikc 
gave  expression  to  the  opinion  which  men  came  to  have 
of  King  Charles.  If  it  was  not  (as  most  probably  it 
was  not)-  of  this  king's  own  composition,  it  gathered 
together  with  marvellous  skill  the  thoughts  which 
might  well  be  put  forth  in  vindication,  in  arrest  of 
judgment,  or  in  compassionate  forgiveness  of  the 
sovereign  who  had  been  slain.     It  had  at  least  some- 

1  The  accounts  of  Sir  Thomas  Herbert  (1702)  and  Sir  Pliilip 
Warwick  (1701)  cannot  be  surpassed  for  simple  pathos. 

2  The  controversy  as  to  the  authorship  has  so  little  Ijcaring  on 
my  subject  that  I  will  not  reproduce  the  notes  I  have  made  on  the 
subject.  I  will  only  say  that  the  internal  evidence  (as  examined 
by  Mr.  C.  E.  Doble  in  The  Academy,  1883,  pp.  330,  367,  402,  457) 
seems  to  me  too  strong  to  resist.  The  style  is  indubitably  not  at  all 
like  the  King's,  and  is  remarkably  like  Gauden's  before  and  after 
the  publication  of  the  book.  The  external  evidence  is  hardly  con- 
clusive:  see  the  elaborate  examination  of  Wagstaffe  in  A  Vindica- 
tion and  A  Defence  of  the  Vindication.  Mr.  E.  Almack's  Inblio- 
gyapJiy  of  the  Ki/ig's  Book,  1896,  adduces  the  MS.  memoranda  of 
Archbishop  Tenison  and  Prince  Rupert's  MS.  catalogue.  This 
and  much  of  Dr.  Chr.  Wordsworth's  {Who  Wrote  EIKON 
BA2IAIKH  ?  considered  and  answered,  in  two  Letters  addressed  to 
the  Abp.  of  Canterbury,  8vo.,  1824,)  argument  does  not  really  affect 
the  question.  It  is  obvious  that  if  Gauden  wrote  it  many  were 
deceived.  The  mass  of  literature  attempting  to  vindicate  Charles's 
authorship  leaves  the  reader  undecided  :  and  he  has  nothing  to 
oppose  to  Mr.  Doble's  extremely  close  and  practically  convincing 
investigation.  None  the  less,  Dr.  Wordsworth's  arguments  (and 
those  of  Miss  C.  M.  Phillimore)  are  well  worth  consideration  ;  and 
the  Bodleian  volume  (Wood,  363)  of  tracts  on  the  subject  {cf.  also 
Life  of  John  Toland,  1722,  pp.  15-17)  (lcscr\es  reading  through. 


The  Completion  of  Faith  349 

thing  of  the  king's  own  writing :  it  had  very  much  of 
what  must  have  been  his  own  feehngs :  it  had  most 
of  all  what  his  people  came  to  think  and  feel  about 
him.  And  if  it  was  a  plea  for  the  dead  king,  it  was  at 
least  as  much  a  passionate  defence  of  the  Church  of 
England. 

There  need  be  no  wonder  then  that  the  fullest  asser- 
tion was  made  of  sanctity  and  martyrdom/  that  the 

1  Mrs.  Greville  Nugent  has  very  carefully  collected  and  mar- 
shalled evidence  to  show  that  King-  Charles  fully  satisfied  the 
conditions  laid  down  by  Benedict  XIV^  as  essential  to  canonization 
as  a  martyr.  It  is  interesting  to  add  that  claim  was  made,  perhaps 
early,  for  miracles.  See  G.  ].,  A  letter  sent  into  France  to  the 
Lord  Duke  of  Buckingham^  by  an  eminent  divine^  of  a  great 
miracle  wrought  by  a  piece  of  a  handkerchief  dipped  in  his 
inajes tie's  bloud :  the  truth  whereof  he  himself  saw  atid  is  ready 
to  depose  it,  afid  doth  believe  it  will  be  attested  by  500  others  if 
occasion  requires.  Imprinted  in  the  year  1649.  [This  describes  a 
miracle  done  at  "  Bedford,  near  London,"  seen  by  "a  noble  knight 
a  kinsman  of  mine."  The  author  went  down  and  took  the 
evidence  of  the  mother,  Mistress  Bayly,  wife  of  Charles  Bayly, 
"  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Thomas  Bret  an  Ancient  Gentleman 
of  knowne  truth  and  integrity."  The  story  is  that  there  were 
swellings  of  a  child's  face  (iistat.  about  14)  leading  to  blindness, 
etc.  A  little  piece  of  handkerchief  that  was  dipt  in  the  king's 
blood  was  obtained  from  the  journeyman  of  Mr.  Francis  Cole,  a 
woollen  draper,  at  the  Black  Lyon  at  Paul's  Chaine,  the  Saturday 
after  the  king's  death.  The  mother  stroked  her  child's  eyes  and 
swellings  with  it,  and  they  went  away  slowly  after  se\'eral  days. 
They  got  worse  if  neglected  for  a  night,  but  eventually  disappeared. 
A  further  list  of  healings  is  added  to  a  later  copy.  The  story 
might  be  one  of  those  told  of  the  Becket  miracles.  There  can  be 
very  little  doubt  that  "  G.  J."  was  John  Gauden,  but  it  is  not  in  the 
Thomason  collection,  which  makes  to  some  extent  against  its 
genuineness.  There  is  also  A  Miracle  of  Miracles,  1649,  which 
is  entered  in  Thomason's  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum  as  July  5, 
1649.  This  deals  with  the  same  case.  The  title  of  this  states  that 
the  girl  was  cured  "  to  the  comfort  of  the  King's  friends  and  the 


35"  The  English  Saints 

Cluirch  honoured  the  kinj;'s  name  among  her  saints, 
and  that  the  state  put  the  day  of  his  death  into  her 
kalcndar,  from  which  it  has  only  been  removed  illegally 
by  the  printers.  The  form  of  service  for  January  30 
was  the  subject  of  long  and  serious  discussion,  and  of 
considerable  revision  from  the  early  and  more  primitive 
form  which  was  at  first  drawn  up.^  It  was  issued  by 
authority  of  the  Convocations,  annexed  to  the  Prayer 
Book  by  authority  of  the  Crown,  and  had  also  some 
statutory  sanction.-  It  had  not,  however,  the  authority 
of  Parliament  as  it  stood,  and  its  use  was  enforced  only 
by  Royal  Proclamation,  at  the  beginning  of  every  reign 
till  that  of  Edward  \ll.  In  1S59  i^  ^^''is  withdrawn  b}- 
an  Order  in  Council. 

The  insertion  of  "  King  Charles,  Martyr,"  in  the 
kalendar  on  January  30  has  on  the  other  hand  the  full 
authority  of  the  Crown,  the  Convocations,  and  Parlia- 
ment, being  in  the  Sealed  Book,  and  it  therefore 
remains  by  law  as  much  in  force  as  any  other  provision 
made  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  No  action  has  ever 
been  taken  by  Crown,  Convocations,  or  Parliament  to 
alter  the  kalendar,  or  to  omit  the  name  of  him  who  was 
last  admitted  into  it  as  an  English  saint.  ^ 


punishment  of  his  enemies,  and  the  truth  hereof  many  thousands 
can  testifie."     Thomason  has  added,  "  this  is  very  true."] 

1  See  the  form,  pubHshed  by  His  Majesty's  direction,  printed  by 
John  Bill,  1661. 

^  12  Car.  ii.,  c.  14. 

3  See  on  all  this  W.  H.  Frere,  [Proctor's]  History  of  the  Book  of 
Conuno7t  Prayer,  pp.  645,  646  ;  Lathbury,  History  of  Convocation, 
pp.  241-258  ;  D'Oyley,  Life  of  Archbishop  Sancroft,  i.  115,116  (with 
criticism  of  Burnet).  Even  if  the  Order  of  January  17,  1859,  could 
override  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  it  obviously  does  not  deal  with  the 


The  Completion  of  Faith  351 

The  form  of  service  is  interesting  and  suggestive.  It 
shows  more  clearly  than  any  other  authority  the  view 
which  was  taken  by  the  Church  of  the  life  and  death  of 
him  whom  Church  and  State  now  alike  delighted  to 
honour.  His  death  is  spoken  of  as  a  barbarous 
murder :  the  virtues  that  are  commemorated  in  the 
king  are  "  his  courage  and  constancy,  his  meekness  and 
patience,  and  great  charity  "  :  he  is  called  God's  "  dear 
servant,  our  dread  sovereign,  King  Charles  the  First "  ; 
and  the  Name  of  the  Lord,  "  in  Whose  sight  the  death 
of  [the]  Saint  is  precious  "  is  magnified  for  the  grace 
bestowed  upon  the  martyr  "  by  which  he  was  enabled 
so  cheerfully  to  follow  the  steps  of  his  blessed  Master 
and  Saviour  in  a  constant  meek  suffering  of  all  barbarous 
indignities,  and  at  last  resisting  unto  blood ;  and  even 
then,  according  to  the  same  pattern,  praying  for  his 
murderers."  In  the  morning  the  New  Testament 
lesson  was  the  last  the  king  heard  on  earth  ;  in  the 
evening  it  was  one  consecrated  of  old  time  to  the 
festival  of  a  martyr.^ 

Thus  the  Church  of  England,  with  the  sanction  of 
the  State,  definitely  canonized  Charles  the  King.  The 
usage  of  the  earlier  days  was  followed.  The  bishops 
formally  directed  the  observance  of  the  day  with  a  fixed 

kalendar,  for  it  refers  only  to  what  was  "annexed"  to  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  by  Royal  Warrant.  The  kalendar  is  part  of  the 
book  itself. 

1  On  the  Office  for  January  30,  see  A  discourse  of  the  Offices  for 
Vth  of  November,  XXXth  of  January,  XXlXth  of  May,  by  Thomas 
Comber,  D.D.,  1796.  Comber,  in  his  notes  (pp.  77-173)  on  the 
Special  Services  for  January  30,  gives  some  historical  references  as 
well  as  analytic  comment.  The  day  was  to  be  observed  as  a  strict 
fast,  not  as  a  saint's  day  with  an  eve. 


352  The  Enc.lish  Saints 

order  of  religious  service  ;  the  public  secular  authority 
concurred.  And  the  usage  was  in  agreement  with  that 
of  the  Orthodox  Churches  of  the  East,  where  the  action 
of  the  Bishops  in  Synod  is  confirmed  in  Russia  by  the 
consent  of  the  Tsar.^ 

A  last  sign  of  the  full  and  formal  nature  of  this 
canonization  is  the  dedication  of  churches.  Five 
(possibly  six)  of  these  are  still  known.'  Bishop 
Seth  Ward  when  he  consecrated  the  second  of  them 
wrote'"  that  he  had  used  a  special  form  "out  of  the 
honour  which  ever}-  true  son  of  the  Church  owes  to 
his  memor}'  (the  onl}'  person  canonized  for  a  martyr 
by  it)." 

This  is  the  last  canonization  in  the  English  Church, 
and  it  is  t^-pical  of  what  was  always  meant  b}'  thus 
hallowing  a  name  in  the  faith  and  fear  of  Christ. 
There  was  no  claim  for  faultlessness,  no  setting  forth 
for  imitation  in  all  things,  no  denial  even  of  conspicuous 
faults  and  sins.  All  that  is  asserted  is  that  the  witness 
of  faith  has  been  given  conspicuously,  and  so  the  soul 
has  passed  into  the  peace  of  the  merciful  God.  It  is 
not  complete  knowledge  :  "  faith  '"  says  S.  Clement  of 
Alexandria  is  "  the  knowing  in  sum  the  things  that  are 

1  In  Russia  the  final  proceedings  preparatory  to  the  canonization 
of  Father  Seraphim  of  the  SarofF  Monastery,  ob.  1833,  are  in 
progress  as  I  write  these  words.  In  (ireece  also  canonization 
though  not  common  still  continues.  A  recent  instance  is  S.  Philo- 
thca  of  Athens,  who  died  in  1 589. 

-  They  are  at  Falmouth,  Plymouth  (possibly  two?),  Peak  Forest, 
Newtown  (Salop),  and  Tunbridge  Wells.  See  Miss  Arnold- 
Forster's  S/udics  in  Church  Dedicatmis^  ii.  346-348.  On  the 
Falmouth  Church,  see  Tanner  MS.,  cxli.  fol.  167. 

'•''  Tanner  MSS.  in  I5odleian  Library,  Letter  of  September  i,  1665, 
to  Archbishop  Sancruft. 


The  Completion  of  Faith  353 

essential,  and  knowledge  is  the  showing  forth,  strong 
and  sure,  of  that  which  is  received  by  faith,  built  upon 
faith  by  the  teaching  of  the  Lord."^ 

Faith  in  its  \\itness  is  welcomed  not  for  what  is  but 
for  what  shall  be.  There  is  no  mechanical  collection 
of  miracles,  no  imaginary  trial  of  an  imaginary  candi- 
date :  it  is  a  spontaneous  testimony  that  the  life  has 
been  lived,  with  all  its  failures,  with  the  face  set  God- 
wards,  and  that  death  has  come  as  a  true  offering  in 
the  Lord.- 

Thus  we  may  speak  of  that  sad  memory  of  our 
civil  strife.  It  would  be  impossible  in  this  place  to 
forget  it,  where  so  often  the  words  of  a  preacher  have 
brought  to  men's  minds  the  last  great  tragedy  of  our 
nation's  historic  life.  But  longer  we  cannot  d\\ell  on 
it :  there  is  another  memory  which  to-day'^  it  would  be 
impossible  to  forget.  For  sixty-three  years  this  day 
was  kept  in  England  with  increasing  loyalty  and 
reverence,  as  the  day  on  which  Queen  Victoria  was 
born.  Hers  is  a  remembrance  which  will  not  pass 
away.  Duty,  unselfish  labour,  the  devotion  of  a  life 
consecrated  to  good,  those  are  the  memories  which, 
looking  back  to  the  early  days  of  English  kingship,  now 
cluster  round  the  name  of  Victoria  the  Great. 

"  I  ascend  the  throne,"  said  the  young  Queen,  when 
she  prorogued  her  first  Parliament,  "  with  a  deep  sense 
of  the  responsibility  imposed  on  me  ;  but  I  am  sup- 
ported by  the  consciousness  of  my  own  right  intentions, 

^  Stromaia,  vii.  10. 

2  It  is  so  only  that  the  soul  can  appeal  to  God  as  Judge,  saying, 
'"  Deus  videt,  et  Deo  commando,  et  Deus  mihi  reddet.'  O  testi- 
monium animal  natuialiter  Christiante."     TertuUian,  Apology,  17. 

2  May  24,  the  birthday  of  Queen  Victoria  "of  blessed  memory."' 

23 


354  The  English  Saints 

and  by  my  dependence  on  the  protection  of  Almighty 
God.  It  will  be  my  care  to  strengthen  onr  institu- 
tions, civil  and  ecclesiastical,  by  discreet  improvement 
wherever  improvement  is  required,  and  to  do  all  in  my 
power  to  compose  and  allay  animosity  and  discord. 
Acting  upon  these  principles,  I  shall,  upon  all  occasions, 
look  with  confidence  to  the  wisdom  of  Parliament  and 
the  affection  of  my  people,  which  form  the  true  support 
of  the  dignity  of  the  Crown  and  ensure  the  stability  of 
the  Constitution." 

Religion,  personal  service,  full  confidence  in  the 
nation — those  are  the  emphatic  thoughts  in  those 
three  pregnant  sentences.  They  were  the  marks  which 
we  see  now  that  the  Queen's  whole  life  will  bear  in- 
effaceably  before  the  judgment  of  posterity.  Year  by 
year,  in  private  diary  or  in  public  speech,  the  thoughts 
recur.  They  were  summed  up  in  the  brief  words  of 
her  message  on  the  Jubilee  Day  of  1897  :  "  From  my 
heart  I  thank  my  beloved  people.  May  God  bless 
them."  They  were  repeated  in  the  touching  letter 
in  which  she  declared  her  intention  to  work  to  the  last. 

Men  who  do  not  flatter  have  expressed  in  deliberate 
language  their  sense  of  the  power  and  the  influence 
which  she  exercised,  with  increasing  force  as  the  years 
went  on,  over  the  development  and  the  whole  political 
history  of  her  Empire.  But  here  we  must  say  still 
more.  "  The  tact,  the  wisdom,  the  passionate 
patriotism,  the  incomparable  judgment,"^  of  Queen 
Victoria  had  their  roots  in  the  central  power  of  her 
devoted  life.     She  was,  we  all  know,  a  good  woman,  in 

^  The  words  of  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury  in  his  commemorative 
speech  in  the  House  of  Lords. 


The  Completion  of  Faith  355 

the  fullest  sense  of  the  word.  At  the  core  of  her  whole 
life  lay  her  religion.  She  loved  her  people  because  she 
loved  God.  And  this  fact  may  explain,  as  no  other 
fact  could,  how  there  has  arisen  among  the  English 
race  that  wonderful  feeling  of  brotherhood  in  service 
which  the  last  three  years  of  her  reign  brought  so 
triumphantly  before  the  world,  vitalized  and  energized 
by  an  unparalleled  consciousness  of  love  and  living 
service.  That  love  and  that  living  service  were  the 
Queen's  ;  and  they  made  clear  to  the  world  the  truth 
of  the  ancient  words,  "  The  throne  is  established  by 
righteousness."^ 

I  have  passed  for  a  moment, — you  will  forgive  me, 
for  I  could  indeed  do  no  otherwise  to-day,  —  outside 
the  strict  limits  of  my  subject  as  it  might  be  rigidly 
defined. 

But  is  it  possible — I  do  not  think  it  is — to  estimate 
the  influence  on  national  character,  which  still  is  sensi- 
tive, matured  and  fashioned  though  it  be,  to  the  touch 
of  living  faith,  of  such  a  life  as  that  which  was  set 
before  England  in  the  blaze  of  publicity  for  so  long  a 
space  of  time  ?  Christ  still  lives  and  works  among 
men  :  and  in  those  who  catch,  however  far  off.  His  Spirit, 
there  is  something  of  His  inexhaustible  and  unending 
power. 

Is  it  a  power  on  men's  lives  that  we  should  neglect  ? 
Has  not  the  time  come  to  revive  some  outward  ex- 
pression of  a  traditional,  and  a  religious,  reverence  for 
the  heroes  of  faith  ?     Ought  we  not  to  inscribe  on  our 

1  So  the  most  striking  sermon  of  Bishop  Stubbs  at  Windsor  on 
the  Sunday  after  the  Queen's  funeral,  referred  to  above,  which  it  is 
much  to  be  wished  may  be  published. 

23—2 


356  The  English  Saints 

kalendars  and  commemorate  in  the  public  services  of 
our  Church  the  holy  lives  and  Christlike  deeds  of  those 
who  have  passed,  these  last  four  centuries,  into  the 
Paradise  of  God  ?  It  is  time  surely  to  satisfy  this 
instinct  which  will  not  be  suppressed,  which  shows  itself 
even  now  in  strange  excesses  of  unauthorized  devotion, 
which  is  so  deeply  stamped  on  our  history  and  on  our 
sympathies,  this  patriotism  of  our  Church.  It  is  time 
to  make  plainer  before  men's  eyes,  by  commemoration 
historic  and  religious,  the  share  which  has  never  ceased 
to  be  borne  in  the  national  life  by  the  witness  of  Faith. 
Something  we  need,  more  than  the  faint  remembrance 
of  the  few  "  memorial  churches  "  we  possess,  to  link 
those  past  ages  of  Faith  with  our  own  and  witness  that 
it  may  be  no  less  faithful. 

For  well  we  know  that  the  service  of  saintly  lives  has 
not  ceased.  Not  less  than  of  old  is  the  need,  not  less 
the  achievement.  Still  "  the  best  fruits  of  religious 
experience  are  the  best  things  that  history  has  to 
show."^  As  there  is  the  same  spirit  behind  the  work 
of  Christians  in  all  ages''  so  it  still  works  the  wondrous 
transformations  of  grace.  And  so  "  the  saintly  group 
of  qualities  is  indispensable  to  the  world's  welfare."^ 
So  much  is  admitted  by  those  who  are  in  doubt  even  as 
to  the  fundamental  principles  upon  which  the  work  has 
been  wrought. 

But  the  question  confronts  us,  when  we  strive  to 
estimate  the  worth  of  such   lives  in   the   light  of  the 

'  W.  James,  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience^  p.  259. 
2  Cf.  the  passage  from  St.  Beuve's  Port  Royal,  quoted  by  James, 
p.  260. 

^  W.  James,  op.  ci/.,  p.  377. 


The  Completion  of  Faith  357 

freedom  which  we  attribute  to  the  Reformation, — is 
the  achievement  wholly  for  individuals,  does  the 
strength  of  the  cloud  of  witnesses  lie  in  the  reality 
of  each  single  separate  testimony,  or  in  the  massed 
cohesion  of  the  whole  ? 

The  true  answer  cannot  long  be  doubtful.  Yet  it 
is  not  the  common  answer.  The  brilliant  psychologist 
whose  book  I  have  more  than  once  quoted  in  these 
lectures,  sees  the  hope  for  the  future  in  an  individual 
and  specialized  religious  experience,  "  Let  us  be  saints 
then,  if  we  can,"  he  says,  "  whether  or  not  we  succeed 
visibly  and  temporally.  But  in  our  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions,  and  each  of  us  must  discover  for  him- 
self the  kind  of  religion  and  the  amount  of  saintship 
which  best  comports  with  what  he  believes  to  be  his 
powers  and  feels  to  be  his  truest  mission  and  voca- 
tion."^ The  Christian  character,  he  would  seem  to 
say,  is  seen  at  its  best  only  in  unchecked  individualism. 
The  legacy  of  the  Reformation,  many  would  agree, 
carries  us  so  far  in  its  assertion  of  the  unfettered 
freedom  and  the  essential  dignity  of  man.  It  is  the 
natural  completion,  we  may  be  told,  of  the  Renaissance, 
which  "  helped  man  onward  to  the  reassertion  of  him- 
self, the  rehabilitation  of  human  nature,  the  body,  the 
senses,  the  heart,  the  intelligence.'"^ 

There  is  much  to  be  said  for  this  view.  There  is  a 
real  need,  and  place,  for  what  may  be  called  Christian 
Humanism.  It  was  the  strange  paradox  of  a  clever 
writer  that  "  not  the  least  remarkable  feature  in 
English     history     is     its     lack     of    picturesque     and 

I  W.  James,  op.  cii.,  p.  377. 

-  Pater,  The  Renaissance  {Pico  delta  Mirandola). 


35^  The  F^nglish  Saints 

emancipated  individuals."'  On  the  contrary,  during 
the  Middle  Ages,  the  saint  was  a  conspicuous  figure 
in  English  life ;  and  the  very  essence  of  his  position 
was  that  he  should  be  individual,  and  that  he  should 
be  picturesque.  He  stood  out  from  his  fellows  as 
having  caught  a  new  and  special  brilliancy  from  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness.  Often  his  greatness  was  not 
fully  recognized  while  he  lived :  but  when  he  died 
the  picturesqueness  and  originality  of  his  life  were 
enriched  by  the  fame  and  reverence  and  prayers  of  his 
countrymen.'-  He  was  venerated  as  he  stood  apart 
from  the  ordinary  tame  obscurity  of  life,  detached  from 
the  surroundings  in  which  the  Englishman  remains 
satisfied  and  content. 

The  Middle  Ages  did  not  ignore  individuality.  But 
the  saint  cannot  be  regarded  apart  from  the  Church 
which  trained  and  formed  him.  "  The  outward  society 
is  the  natural  atmosphere  for  the  individual  religious 
life."^  Apart  from  the  life  of  God  stored  in  the  living 
Body  of  Christ,  he  would  dwindle  and  fail.  The 
"excesses"  of  which  we  are  warned  by  modern  psy- 
chologists, "  fanaticism  or  theopathic  absorption,  self- 
torment,  prudery,  scrupulosity,  gullibility,  and  morbid 

^  Bishop  Creighton,  Romanes  Lecture  on  EttglisJi  Anfionai 
Character. 

2  It  is  true  that  mythical  elements  from  time  to  time  collected 
round  the  saints,  as  is  emphasized  to  an  absurd  extent  by  C.  A. 
Bernoulli,  Die  Heiligeii  dcr  Merowinger,  1900  ;  Fr.  Gorres,  Ritter 
S.  George  in  Zeitschrift  fiir  %vissenscJuiftlicJie  Thco/ogie,  1887,  p.  62  ; 
Ignaz  von  Zingerle,  Die  Osiualdlegeiidc,  1856.  lUit  at  the  root  of 
the  reverence, — so  the  study  of  hagiology  makes  more  and  more 
plain, — lies  a  firm  basis  of  historic  fact. 

■^  T.  B.  Strong,  God  and  the  hidi-c'idtial^  p.  85. 


The  Completion  of  Faith  359 

inability  to  meet  the  world,"  are  not  "  holy  "^  at  all, 
but  they  are  weaknesses,  failures,  due  to  a  preference  of 
individual  tendency  to  the  Catholic  standard  of  Christ. 
No,  it  is  not  as  an  individual  that  the  saint  achieves. 

The  saint  is  one  who  claims  to  live  a  life — of  Faith — 
of  which  Christ  is  the  Leader  and  the  Finisher  ;  to  act 
in  a  Society — the  Church — of  which  Christ  is  the  only 
and  immortal  Head. 

And  this  indeed  is  the  true  and  enduring  contribu- 
tion which  the  lives  of  the  medieval  Saints  offer  towards 
the  perfection  of  the  Christian  character.  That  per- 
fection can  only  be  attained  in  the  unity  of  Christ. 

Where  the  Reformation,  necessary  and  inspiriting 
though  we  know  its  work  to  have  been,  failed  to 
emphasize  this  need,  it  erred,  and  the  error  has  had 
consequences  which  it  is  impossible  to  ignore.  From 
the  days  of  Munzer  to  those  of  the  fanatics  of  our  own 
time  the  lesson  is  writ  large  on  the  history  of  religion. 
God  designed  man  for  society :  only  in  unity  is  His 
work  to  be  carried  on  without  distortion  and  error.- 
The  life  of  Faith  is  only  possible  in  its  fulness  in  the 
solidarity  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

And  the  grand  conception  of  the  solidarity  of  the 
Church  should  be  stimulated  in  each  age  of  the  world's 

1  As  Professor  James  calls  them,  op.  cit.,  p.  370  ;  and  he  adds, 
"  By  the  very  intensity  of  his  fidelity  to  the  paltry  ideals  with  which 
an  inferior  intellect  may  inspire  him,  a  saint  can  be  even  more 
objectionable  and  damnable  than  a  superficial  carnal  man  would 
be  in  the  same  situation."  This  distinguished  writer  can  never 
quite  arrive  at  a  conclusion  as  to  what  a  saint  really  is. 

-  "  Religion  on  the  basis  of  pure  individualism  is  not  and  cannot 
be  the  supreme  motive  and  the  synthetic  force  which  binds  together 
and  makes  rational  all  the  various  elements  of  life." — T.  B.  Strong, 
Christian  Ethics  (Bampton  Lectures,  1895),  p.  334. 


360  The  Engijsii  Saints 

progress  by  the  solidarity  of  national  character.  As 
the  races  settle  down  into  homogeneous  nations,  strong 
in  distinctively  national  ideals,  each  should  offer  to  the 
whole  the  contribution  of  the  excellence  which  comes 
from  the  inspiration  of  God. 

Where  the  ideal  of  saintly  character  has  deteriorated 
— and  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that,  under  some  circum- 
stances, and  where  the  Church  has  been  regarded  as 
a  voluntary  association  of  individual  members,  it  has 
shown  signs  of  distortion — the  failure  is  due,  beyond 
question,  to  the  ignoring  of  the  clear  principle  of  the 
New  Testament  idea.  The  individual  lives  in  and 
through  the  life  of  the  Society :  through  it  he  is 
strengthened :  with  it  his  witness  stands  forth  before 
God,  encompassing  the  strugglers  as  they  fight  upwards 
towards  the  light. 

On  the  one  side  many  Protestant  sects  have  lost  this 
strength  altogether  by  reliance  on  individual  feeling 
alone.  The  individualism  fostered  by  the  Reformation 
has  resulted — paradox  though  it  may  appear  to  be — 
in  the  neglect  of  the  testimony  of  the  individual  Saints. 
Men  have  ignored  those  holy  lives  devoted  of  old  to 
the  love  of  God,  because  they  have  ceased  to  know 
whence  came  the  strength  by  which  they  lived.  And, 
in  an  opposite  extreme,  the  Roman  Church  has  de- 
veloped an  exaggeration  of  the  reverence  for  those 
great  names  which  ignores  or  forgets  that  only  in  the 
whole  Body  was  their  testimony  of  value,  their  holiness 
secure,  their  intercession  availing.^ 

'  Their  intercession  :  it  is  indeed  a  thorny  point  of  contention 
and  severance.  But  can  it  be  denied  that  many  Christians  have 
lost  much  by  closing  their  hearts  to  the  imniortality  which  belongs 


The  Completion  of  Faith  361 

And  this  failure,  be  it  of  defect  or  excess,  is  due  to 
the  same  cause,  to  the  neglect  to  recognize  the  true 
meaning  of  the  saintly  witness,  the  completion  of  the 
saintly  faith. 

The  witness  of  the  Saints  is  an  enduring  one.  They 
have  not  had  their  day  and  ceased  to  be.  Still  they 
survive  in  persistent  testimony  to  the  glory  and  sure- 


to  the  goodness  of  men  ?  In  the  Eastern  Church,  and  notably  in 
Russia,  the  Communion  of  Saints  is  felt  to  obliterate  the  separation 
of  death.  "The  faithful  who  belong- to  the  church  militant  upon 
earth,  in  offering  their  prayers  to  God,  call  at  the  same  time  to  their 
aid  the  saints  who  belong  to  the  Church  in  heaven  ;  and  these, 
standing  on  the  highest  steps  of  approach  to  God,  by  their  prayers 
and  intercessions,  purify,  strengthen,  and  offer  before  God  the 
prayers  of  the  faithful  living  upon  earth,  and  by  the  will  of  God 
work  graciously  and  beneficently  upon  them "  (Blackmore's 
translation  of  Abp.  Philaret's  Larger  Catechism,  quoted  by  A.  C. 
Headlam,  The  Teaching  of  the  Russian  Church,  p.  19).  The 
prayer  is  mutual  :  the  saints  still  pray  for  men,  as  they  did  on 
earth,  and  men  still  pray  for  them  and  ask  their  prayers.  This 
teaching  seems  to  be  no  more  than  the  recognition  of  the  unity  of 
the  Church  in  her  Divine  Head.  The  same  is  the  teaching  of 
those  formularies  of  our  Reformation,  The  Institution  of  a  Christian 
Man,  and  The  Erudition  for  any  Christian  Alan.  The  former, 
after  condemning  prayer  to  saints  for  what  God  alone  can  give, 
adds  :  "  Nevertheless,  to  pray  to  saints  to  be  intercessors  with  us 
and  for  us  to  our  Lord  for  our  suits  which  we  make  to  Him,  and 
for  such  things  as  we  can  obtain  of  none  but  Him,  so  that  we  make 
no  invocation  of  them,  is  lawful,  and  allowed  by  the  Catholic 
Church."  The  latter  modifies  the  statement  by  omitting  the  con- 
demnation of  invocation  ;  and  concludes  that  we  sin  only  if  we 
honour  the  saints  "  in  any  other  ways  than  as  the  friends  of  God, 
dwelling  with  Him.  and  established  now  in  His  glory  everlasting, 
and  as  examples  which  were  requisite  for  us  to  follow  in  holy  life 
and  conversation,  or  if  we  yield  unto  saints  the  adoration  and 
honour  which  is  due  unto  God  alone "  {Formularies  of  Faith, 
Oxford,  1825;  pp.  141,  305). 


362  The  English  Saints 

ncss  of  God.  In  Him  the}'  trusted,  and  He  did  not 
deceive  them.  In  Him  they  reached  that  beauty  of 
virtue,  which,  not  counting  themselves  to  have  attained, 
and  still  pressing  on  towards  the  prize  of  their  high 
calling,  the  spotless  life  that  is  Christ's,  they  offered 
to  Him,  by  His  grace  and  through  His  strength. 
Above  them,  Leader  and  Finisher  of  Faith,  which  alone 
makes  goodness  possible,  is  Jesus  Himself,  the  very 
impress  and  expression  of  His  Divine  Being.  It  is  in 
Him  alone  that  the  life  can  be  lived,  the  victor}' 
achieved. 

So  the  saints  proclaim  the  issue  of  their  lives.  It 
was  Christ  Who  alone  realized  Faith  in  its  fulness, 
Who  was  therefore,  and  Who  remains,  the  One  Who 
perfects  it,  its  Divine  Consummator,  the  true  7eXei.o)Ti]<; 
TTio-Teto?.  And  so  they  stand  forth  as  His  witnesses  to 
us.  They  encompass  us  like  a  cloud,  protecting  as  in 
the  old  Greek  myth,  while  sin  too  encircles  us  with 
encroaching  power.  Human  life  is  beset  with  dangers, 
its  road  is  strewn  with  the  bodies  of  those  whom  sin 
has  slain  in  the  unending  war.  The  writer  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  does  not  stay  to  prove  the 
fact  which  no  ethical  system  can  dispute.  He  points 
upwards  rather  to  those  for  whom  the  warfare  is 
accomplished,  who  have  conquered,  whose  lives  still 
hold  before  us  the  ideal  which,  with  whatever  weak- 
ness and  imperfection,  they  have  still  triumphantly 
upheld.  History  rings  with  their  names.  They  are 
the  heroes  whom  the  soul  of  man  as  it  struggles  does 
not  forget.  And  they  all  point  with  undeviating  agree- 
ment to  the  One  Perfection,  to  Him  Who  has  attained 
where  they  have  striven,   in   Whose  steps  they  have 


The  Completion  of  Faith  363 

striven  to  tread,  to  Whom  they  gave  and  give  persis- 
tent witness,  the  Leader  and  Finisher  of  Faith. 

So  the  saints  speak  :  and  not  of  the  past  only,  but 
for  the  future : 

"  They  have  fought  the  good  fight,  they  have  finished 
their  course, 
To  us  the  inheritance,  to  us  the  labour. 
To  us  the  heroic,  perilous,  hard  essay, 
New  thoughts,  new  regions,  unattempted  things. 

Not  in  the  footsteps  of  old  generations 
Our  feet  may  tread ;  but  high  compelling  spirits. 
Ineluctable  laws  point  the  untrodden  way 
Precipitous,  draw  to  the  uncharted  sea. 
Again  and  yet  again  the  appointed  angel, 
A  pillar  of  fire  before  this  murmuring  people, 
Moves  beckoning  on,  again  and  yet  again 
The  dragon-haunted  untractable  wilderness 
.    They  must  adventure,  or  make  the  Grand  Refusal 
And  die  forsaken  of  God  the  despised  death."  ^ 

Amid  the  perpetual  tragedy  of  the  neglected  call,  the 
saints  speak  of  inextinguishable  hope.  Have  Faith  in 
God  :  that  is  the  story  of  their  lives.  Goodness  is  real ; 
attainment  is  possible.  In  all  the  difficulties  of  belief 
there  is  a  clue.  God  has  not  left  Himself,  all  the  world 
through,  without  witness.  No  religion  that  men  have 
followed  has  wholly  shut  its  eyes  to  Him ;  few  have 
been  without,  though  it  be  in  pitiful  isolation,  their 
heroes  of  Faith  :  but  brightest  among  them  all,  incom- 

^  The  Builders^  by  Mrs.  ^ooA?.{CornJnll  Magazine^  December, 
1902). 


364  The   English  Saints 

parabl}-,  in  the  richness  of  their  ideals  and  in  the  clear- 
ness of  their  vision  of  things  divine,  stand  the  saints  of 
Christ.  The  life  of  Faith  in  the  unseen  is  real  to  them 
because  He  has  realized  it,  it  is  attainable  because  He 
has  attained  it.  And  it  presents,  in  perpetual  evidence, 
the  truth  of  the  superiority  of  moral  greatness  above  all 
material  excellence.  The  encompassing  cloud  of  saints, 
each  in  his  witness,  stands  out  as  in  a  measure  the 
extension  of  the  eternal  truth  which  the  Incarnation 
alone  could  triumphantly  vindicate.^  The  saints 
witness  and  worship  before  One  Who  was  Himself 
made  perfect  through  sufferings  and  in  Whom  they 
can  look  "  through  the  present  and  the  visible  to  the 
future  and  the  unseen.""^ 

The  witness  of  life  to  Faith,  however  incomplete  the 
area  of  its  proof,  is  a  true  witness.  Often,  indeed,  we 
see — and  it  must  be  so  in  every  age — that  "  Divine 
truth  is  best  understood  as  it  unfolds  itself  in  the 
purity  of  men's  hearts  and  lives  "  ;  and  so  God  "  hangs 

•  "  In  the  world  looked  at  Ijy  the  light  of  simple  theism,  the 
evidences  of  God's  material  power  lie  about  us  on  every  side,  daily 
added  to  by  science,  universal,  overwhelming".  The  evidences  of 
His  moral  interest  have  to  be  anxiously  extracted,  grain  by  grain 
through  the  speculative  analysis  of  our  moral  nature.  Mankind, 
however,  are  not  given  to  speculative  analysis  ;  and  if  it  be  desirable 
that  they  should  be  enabled  to  obtain  an  imaginative  grasp  of  this 
great  truth  ;  if  they  need  to  have  brought  home  to  them  that,  in  the 
sight  of  (}od,  the  stability  of  the  heavens  is  of  less  importance  than 
the  moral  growth  of  a  human  spirit,  I  know  not  how  this  end  could 
be  more  completely  attained  than  by  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation."  A.  J.  Balfour,  TJie  Fotindatiotis  of  Belief,  pp.  347-348  ; 
and  cf.  p.  354.  It  may  well  be  said  that  this  is  what  the  Church 
was  intended  to  keep  perpetually  before  the  world  l^y  the  lives  of 
the  saints,  imitators  of  the  Incarnate  Son. 

-'  Westcott,  Epistle  to  the  Hebrezus,  on  xii.  2. 


The  Completion  of  Faith  365 

all  true  acquaintance  with  divinity  upon  the  doing  of 
His  will." 

The  completion  of  Faith  in  the  enduring  witness 
must  be  consummated  in  Christ,  the  Leader  and 
Finisher  of  Faith  :  and  it  needs  the  environment  of 
the  Divine  Society,  the  Church.  Not  apart  from  His 
brethren  did  Jesus  triumph,  but  as  the  lirstfruits  of 
their  offering  to  God:  it  is  as  members  of  His  Body 
alone  that  their  witness  is  acceptable  and  complete. 

And  so  it  is  not  as  individuals,  but  as  knit  together 
in  one  communion  and  fellowship  that  we  in  England 
must  present  our  witness  to  the  truth  of  the  revelation 
of  Christ.  There  is  a  distinct  type,  strong  with  its 
own  special  excellences,  which  it  is  ours  to  guard  as  a 
precious  heritage  from  the  past.  The  very  condition 
of  its  maintenance  is  a  loyalty  to  the  Leader  and 
Finisher  of  Faith,  Who  has  moulded  and  sanctified 
the  characteristics  of  our  race.     To  attempt  to  remould 

1  "  Divine  Truth  is  better  understood  as  it  unfolds  itself  in  the 
purity  of  men's  hearts  and  lives,  than  in  all  those  subtle  niceties 
into  which  curious  wits  may  lay  it  forth.  And  therefore  our 
Saviour,  who  is  the  great  Master  of  it,  would  not,  while  He  was 
here  on  earth,  draw  it  up  into  any  system  or  body,  nor  would  His 
disciples  after  Him  ;  He  would  not  lay  it  out  to  us  in  any  canons 
or  articles  of  belief,  not  being  indeed  so  careful  to  stock  and 
enrich  the  world  with  opinions  and  notions  as  with  true  Piety,  and 
a  godlike  pattern  of  Purity,  as  the  best  way  to  thrive  in  all  spiritual 
understanding.  His  main  scope  was  to  promote  a  holy  life,  as  the 
best  and  most  compendious  way  to  a  right  belief.  He  hangs  all 
true  acquaintance  with  Divinity  upon  the  doing  God's  will ;  if  any 
man  will  do  His  will  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of 
God."  John  Smith,  A  Discourse  concerning  the  True  Way  or 
Method  of  attaining  to  Divine  Knowledge  (in  Campagnac's 
Cambridge  Platonists,  pp.  86-87).  The  statement  has  the  defects 
as  well  as  the  excellences  of  the  position  of  the  "  Latitude-men." 


366  The  English  Saints 

ourselves  on  a  foreign  type  is  unnatural,  and  so  far  it 
frustrates  His  purpose  for  our  work.  To  seek  unity  is 
indeed  incumbent  on  us  by  our  very  loyalty  to  Him  : 
but  it  is  treason  to  sacrifice  that  nationalism  which 
stands  for  individuality  in  the  Catholic  Church.  Seek 
unity — that  is  indeed  the  witness  of  the  saints  of  old — 
for  without  it  the  Christian  life  misses  the  perfection 
for  which  Jesus  prayed:  seek  to  strengthen  every  force 
of  national  inspiration  in  Christ :  but  above  all,  in 
every  moment  of  the  life  of  labour  and  of  achievement, 
seek  Peace  and  ensue  it. 


Tu,  Qui  cuncta  sets  et  vales. 
Qui  nos  pascis  hie  inortales, 
Tuos  ibi  commetisales 
Cohceredes  et  sodales 
Fac  sanctorum  civium. 


INDEX 


Abbo  of  Fleurv,  an  authority 
for  life  of  S.  Edmund,  137  n.  ; 
visits  England,  139 ;  on  the 
Danish  invasions,  140;  quoted, 
141-143 

Acta  Sanctoniui,  Bollandist,  17, 
23  n.  2,  32,  33,  44  n.  I,  77  n., 
88  n.  4,  99  n.  2,  104  n.  3,  155 
u.  I,  207  n.  3,  219  n.  I,  234  n.  i, 
236  n.  3,  263  n.  3,  267  n.  2,  303 
n.  2,  326  n.  2 

Adalbert,  Saint,  the  Apostle  of 
Prussia,  44 

Adamnan,  Life  of  Coluinba, 
129  n.,  284 

Aedan,  Saint,  disciple  of  S. 
David,  109  n.  2 

^ijlfeah  (Elphege,  Alphege), 
Archbishop,  a  Life  of  S.  Dun- 
stan  dedicated  to,  230.  See 
Alphege 

^Ifric,  Archbishop,  his  Lives  of 
the  Saints,  129,  288-290;  o.  Life 
of  S.  Dmistan  dedicated  to, 
230 

.^thelberht,  see  Ethelbcrht 

^^thelburg,  Saint,  306.  See 
Ethelbiirg 

yEthelfr3'th,  Saint,  313  n.  2 

Africa,  effect  of  Christianity  on,    ! 
II,  12;  S.John  of  God  goes  to,    i 

S3 
"Age  of  Saints"  in  Wales,  the, 

105,  106  J 

Agnes,  Saint,  306  n.  i  ' 

Aidan,  Saint,  116  n.  i,  118,  123,  j 
203,  307  ;  fellow-worker  of  S. 
Oswald,  129,  131 ;  of  S.  Oswine, 
135  ;  compared  with  S.  Augus- 
tine, 182  ;  as  monk,  183-185  ;  as 
missionary,  184 ;  miracles  of, 
186 


Ailred  of  Rievaulx,  hagiologist, 

30,    192  n. ;    biographer  of  S. 

Ninian,   116;   of  Edward  the 

Confessor,  159 
Alban,    Saint,    93,    94,     no    n. ; 

omitted  in  the  Anglican  Kal- 

eudar,  33  n.  6 
Alchfrith,  nephew  of  S.  Oswald, 

Alchmund,  King  of  the  Old 
Saxons,  139  n. 

Alchmund,  Saint,  153  n.  i 

Alcuin,  quoted,  127,  129  u., 
130  u.,  203,  204 

Aldlielm  of  Sherborne,  Saint, 
ijo  n.,  207-209;  quoted,  102, 
III  n.  2  ;  omitted  in  tlie  Angli- 
can Kalendar,  33  n.  6 

Alexander,  W.,  Archbishop  of 
Armagh,  37  n.  4 

Alexander  III.,  Pope,  262,  263 ; 
insists  on  formal  canonization, 

2311.3 
Alexander  VI.,  Pope,  263 
Alexander  Nevski,  Saint,  42 
Alfred,    King,    40,    57,    208,    209, 

231;  "theTruthteller,"  14S-153 
Allen,  Rev.  Roland,  on  Chinese 

converts,  10  n.  i. 
Alphege  of  Canterbur}-,   Saint, 

no   n.,   142,   155   u.  2,  234-236 

n.  2,  341.     See  ALlfeah 
Ambrose,    Saint,  and   the   Em- 
peror Theodosius,  345 
Amphibalus,    Saint,   teacher   of 

S.  Alban,  94,  95  n.  i 
Analeda   Bollaiidiana,  28   n.  3, 

44  n.  I,  60  n.  I,  95  n.  i,  128  n.  3, 

287  n.  I 
Anchoresses,  319 
Anchoret,  meaning  of  term,  21S 

n.  2 


[  369] 


24 


370 


The  English  Saints 


Ancrcn  Ri'n'Ic,  the,  319 

Andrew  of  Crete,  Saint,  27  n. 

Animals,  friendship  of,  with  S. 
Cuthbert,  222  ;  S.  Godric,  225  ; 
.S.  Ciuthlac,  222  ;  the  hermits, 
223;  vS.  Iliij^h,  216 

Anne  of  Russia,  Saint,  40  n.  2. 

Anselni,  Saint,  152,  184,  189,  230, 
233-238 ;  authorities  for,  236 
n.  3  ;  his  theology,  238 ;  canon- 
ization, 238,  262-264 ;  miracles, 
295  ;  contrasted  with  Becket, 
259-264 

Antonino  of  Florence,  Saint, 
quoted,  34 

Apologetics,  2,  5 

Arnold,  INIatthew,  quoted,  35 

Arnold-Forster,  INIiss,  Studies  in 
Churcli  Dedications,  89  n.  i, 
95  n.  2,  loi  n.  3,  132  n.,  136  n., 
137  "•-  303  n-  I.  3,  304  11-  3. 
320  n.  3,  352  n.  2.,  etc. 

Art,  sacred,  in  sarcophagi,  315 
n.  3.     See  Pictures,  Statues 

Arthur,  King,  126 

Asceticism  of  S.  P'dmund  of 
Abingdon,  266,  267  n.  i ;  of  S. 
Elizabeth,  54;  reaction  against 
(?),  51  n. ;  of  S.  Francis,  69; 
vS.  Godric,  224;  the  hermits, 
219;  vS.  Hugh,  213;  S.  John  of 
the  Cross,  73  ;  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort,  270 

Asser,  friend  and  biographer  of 
King  Alfred,  138,  i4"9,  150 

Audrey  (or  Etlieldreda),  Saint, 
303.  312,  314 

Augustine  of  Canterbury,  Saint, 
22,  97,  102,  no  n.,  203,  279;  his 
influence  on  English  Chris- 
tianity, 110-115;  compared 
with  S.  Aidan,  182 

Augustine  of  Hippo,  Saint, 
quoted,  21  ;  Alfred's  para- 
phrase of,  151 

Bacon,  I'rancis,  Lord  Verulam, 

165  n.  I 
Balfour,  Right  Hon.  Arthur  J., 

Foundations  of  Belief,  2S2,  283, 

364  n.  I 
Baring-Gould,  Rev.  S.,  73  n  i, 

83  n.,  326  n.  2,  etc. 
Barons'  War,  the,  269 
Basques,  the,  84 


1  Beatification,  24,  25;  of  Joan  of 
Arc,  60  n.  ;  of  S.  John  of  the 
Cross,  75.     See  Benedict  XII'. 

Beatits,  meaning  of  the  term,  25 

Beazley,  C.  Raymond,  42  n.  i 

Becket,  Thomas,  152  n.  4.  See 
Thomas  of  Canterbury 

Bede,  the  Venerable,  no  n. ; 
relics  of,  193 ;  authorities  for 
life  of,  199  n.  I  ;  his  monastic 
life,  198-206,  209 ;  credulity  of, 
186  n.  4,  284  ;  his  martvrologv, 
28 ;  his  Life  of  Cuthbert,  186- 
192 ;  his  Eccl.  Hist.,  etc.. 
quoted,  45  n.,  93  n.  i,  98,  102 
11.  2,  3,  III  n.  3,  112,  ns  n.  r, 
116  n.  I,  3,  127-131,  133,  134  n., 
J35.  305  "•  2,  306  n.  2,  307,  308, 
314,  etc. 

Beeching,  Canon  H.  C,  218  n.  i, 
335 

Beino,  Saint,  313  n.  i 

Benedict  Biscop,  207 

Benedict  XIV.,  Pope,  his  book 
De  Beatificatione  et  Canoniza- 
tionc,  20,  23  n.  3,  24  n.,  25  u.  3, 
81  n.  1, 198  n.  2,278,322,  349  n.  i 

Benedict  of  Nursia,  Saint, 
quoted,  198,  199 

Benson,  Archbishop,  68  n.,  70  n., 
184  n.  2,  193  n.,  258  n.  i,  284 

Beodricsworth  (Bury  S.  Ed- 
mund's), church  built  at,  143 

Berhtwald,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, 208 

Berin,  vSaint,  130.     See  Birinus 

Bernard,  Saint,  letters  of,  258 ; 
protests  against  ill-usage  of 
the  Jews,  329 

Bernardino  of  Siena,  vSaint,  65 

Bernoulli,  C.  A.,  Die  Heitigen 
der  iMerowinger,  95  n.  3,  292, 
358  n.  2  ;  on  miracles,  283 

Berthgit,  310 

Bewcastle  Cross,  131 

Birinus,  Saint,  no  n.,  n6.  See 
Berin 

Bishop's  power  of  canonization, 
22,  23  ;  vindicated  b}-  S. 
Martin,  26  n.3;  in  the  Eastern 
Chuich,  352 

Bishop,  Mrs.,  on  Chinese  con- 
verts, 10  n.  2  ;  on  position  of 
women  in  heathen  lands,  299- 
300  u. 


Index 


371 


Blood  of  Hayles,  138  n. 
Bollaudists,  see  Acta  and  Ana- 

leda 

Boniface,  Saint,  in  the  Kalendar 
of  the  Leofric  Missal,  28  ;  birth, 
44;  authorities  for,  44  n.  i, 
46  n.  I  ;  the  name  Boniface, 
44  n.  2 ;  his  career,  45-47  ; 
canonization,  48  ;  quoted, 
139  n.,  310  n.  I 

Boris  and  Glyeb,  Saints  of 
Russia,  41,  42 

Bossuet,  quoted,  249 

Brendan,  Saint,  102 

Bride,  Saint,  102  n.  2 

Bridget,  Saint,  loi  n.  3,  102  ; 
Brigid,  306  n.  i 

Bright,  William,  quoted,  93  n.  i, 
115  n.  I,  116  n.  I,  182  n.  i,  2, 
183  n.  I,  2,  188  n.  I,  4,  195  n.  i, 
196  n.  2,  201  n.  5,  219  n.  i,  220 
n.  3,  306  n.  2,  307  n.  i,  314 
n.  I 

Bristol,  Bishop  of,  quoted,  131  n. 
See  BrGzvne 

Browne,  G.  F.,  Bishop  of  Bristol, 
114  n.  I,  131  n.,  149  n.  i,  194 
n.  2,  196  n.  2,  199  n.  i,  3 ; 
207  n.  2,  3,  208  n.  4,  209  n.  2, 
312  n.  2 ;  on  SS.  Ninian  and 
Kentigern,  117  n.  i;  on  King 
Alfred,  150  n.  4 

Brunforte,  Ugolino,  author  of 
the  Fioretti  of  S.  Francis,  66, 
67 

Bund,  J.  W.  Willis,  Celtic  Church 
in  Wales,  29  n.  3,  100  n.  i,  2, 
103  n.  2,  104  n.  3,  105  n.  i,  107 
n.  3,  121  n.  3,  277 

Burchardus,  Saint,  of  Wurz- 
burg,  46  n.  I 

Burke,  Edmund,  quoted,  333 

Bury,  Professor  J.  B.,  on  S. 
George,  86  n.  i  ;  on  S.  Patrick, 
100  n.  2,  loi  n.  I 

Bury  S.  Edmunds,  143 

Butler,  Alban,  Lives  of  the 
Saints,  73  n.  i,  83  n.,  326  n.  2, 
etc. 

Butler,  Joseph,  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, quoted  on  Common- 
wealth and  Charles  I.,  339, 
340 

Caedmon,  30S' 


Cairnech,  Saint,  loS 

Cajetan,  Saint,  70  n.  i 

Calderon,  his  Constant  Prince,  72 

Canonization,  21-26;  by  the 
Pope,  23,  55  n.  2  ;  by  the  Pope 
in  the  cases  of  S.  John  of  the 
Cross,  75  n.  i  ;  S.  John  of 
God,  84  n.  I  ;  vS.  Francis 
Xavier,  81  n.  i,  85  n.  2 ;  S. 
Teresa,  etc.,  81  n.  i  ;  Pope's 
confirmation  necessary  to, 
163 ;  expenses  of,  at  Rome, 
165  n.  I,  263,  273  ;  by  a  synod, 
22,  24  n.,  48;  of  Charles  I.  by 
the  English  Church,  349-352  ; 
in  the  Eastern  Church,  352  ; 
so  -  called,  of  Dunstan  hy 
Cnut,  231,  n.  I  ;  popular,  in 
the  cases  of  King  Edward  the 
Martyr,  158;  the  Kentish 
Kings,  etc.,  126,  127;  S.  Robert 
of  Knaresborough,  222  n.  2  ; 
see  further  the  canonizations 
of  S.  Boniface,  48  n.  2 ;  S. 
Elizabeth,  55  n.  2 ;  S.  Hugh, 
215  ;  Joan  of  Arc,  60  n.  i  ; 
S.  Richard  of  Chichester,  268 
n.  3  ;  S.  Roch,  24  n. ;  Welsh 
saints,  106  n.  2 

Canon  L,aw  regarding  Jews,  328, 

329 
Capgrave,  John,  31,  i2>^  267  n.  2, 

306  n.  I.     See  N'ova  Legenda 
Caradoc,  Saint,  106  n.  i,  2 
Carlo  Borromeo,  Saint,  70 
Carmelites,  reformed  by  S.John 

of  the  Cross,  74  ;  by  S.  Teresa, 

79 
Catherine  of  Genoa,  Saint,  65, 

81  n. 
Catherine  of  Siena,  Saint,  65 
Cedd,  Saint,  disciple  of  S.  Aidan, 

123,  185,  202  n. 
Cedoc     of    Llancarfau,     Saint, 

miracles  of  291 
Celsus,  boy  martj-r,  326 
Celtic  Church,  idoff.  ;  influence 

on  English  Christianity,  final 

failure,    114,   115;    saints,   29; 

dedications,  107,  108 
Chad,  Saint,  183,  185,  198,  202  n., 

205 
Chancellorship      m      time      of 

Becket,  243 
Charity  practised    by    Edward 
24 — 2 


372 


The  English  Saints 


the  Confessor,  i6o  ;  King 
Edward  the  IMartyr,  156;  S. 
Elizabeth,  52,  54,  55  ;  S.  John 
of  God,  83 ;  S.  J.ouis,  59 ;  S. 
Margaret,  318;  S.  Robert  of 
Knaresborough,  222 

Charles  I.,  King  and  IMartyr, 
337-353;  authorities,  337  n.  i  ; 
beginning  of  cult,  340;  had 
maintained  the  theological 
position  of  the  Chvirch  of 
England,  342,  343 ;  goodness 
of  his  personal  life,  343-347  ; 
dignity  of  his  end,  347 ; 
satisfies  Benedict  XIV.'s  re- 
quirements for  canonization, 
349  n.  I  ;  miracles  attributed 
to,  349;  his  place  in  the 
Prayer- Book,  350  ;  form  of 
service,  351 

Charles  II.  of  Spain,  75 

Chastit}-,  most  prized  b}-  the 
Irish  martyrologist,  1 10  n. 

Chaucer's  Canterbury  'J'aks,  242 

China,  effect  of  Christianity  on, 
9,  10 

Chivalry,  Christian,  57,  64 

Christianity,  its  effect  on  Euro- 
pean civilization,  7  ff ;  on  the 
Greek  race,  7,  8 ;  on  the  Latin 
races,  8  ;  on  the  Teutonic 
races,  8,  9 ;  on  non-European 
races  at  the  present  day, 
9  ff.  ;  on  Chinese,  9,  lo;  on 
Central  Africans,  11  ;  on 
Kafirs,  12;  on  cannibals  of 
New  Guinea,  13,  14;  on  Poly- 
nesians, 14  ;  on  Indians,  15  ; 
on  England,  seen  in  the  lives 
of  the  saints,  34  ;  its  purpose 
to  make  men  saints,  20,  21 ; 
Christian  chivalrj-,  57,  64 ; 
Christian  Humanism,  357 

Church,  the  Catholic,  4;  unity 
and  nationality  in,  90,  359-361 ; 
rights  of,  to  be  defended,  257  ; 
modern  value  of  the  medieval 
Church,  332 

Church,  the  Eastern,  venerated 
other  saints  than  the  Western, 
27 ;  national  saints  of,  40 ; 
canonization  in,  352 

Church,  the  English,  attitude 
towards  Popes,  22  n.  4,  24  ;  re- 
form of,  by  the  Normans,  160  ; 


its  theological  position  main- 
tained by  Charles  I.,  342,  343  ; 
its     national     witness,     365, 
j        366 

I    Church,  R.  W.,  quoted,   7-9,   20, 
I       21,  236  n.  I,  238  n.  4,  300 

Cid,  The,  72 

Clarendon,  Constitutions  of, 
24S,  253  n.  1 

Clarke,  H.  Butler,  T/w  Cid,  72 
n.  I  ;  on  S.  Teresa,  80  n.  3. 

Clarke,  Sir  Ernest,  letters  to  the 
Times,  143  n. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  Saint, 
quoted,  352,  353 

Clement  XL,  Pope,  264 

Cloveshoo,  Council  of  (a.d.  747), 
22 

Clovis,  41;  "the  Clevis  of  Rus- 
sia," 40 

Cnut,  King,  126;  orders  S.  Dun- 
stan's  INIass  day  to  be  observed, 
231  ;  at  Ely,  316 

Coincidences  may  explain  mira- 
cles, 293,  294 

Columba,  Saint,  loi,  102,  118- 
123,  185  ;  miracles  of,  291 

Communion  of  Saints,  3,  34, 
356-366 ;  impossible  outside 
the  Church,  24 ;  view  of,  in 
the  Eastern  Church,  361  n. 

Confession,  S.  Teresa's  experi- 
ence of,  78;  S.  Cuthbert  hears, 
188,  189 

Confessors,  their  position  in  the 
Church,  22 

Conrad  of  Marburg,  S.  Eliza- 
beth's confessor,  54  ;  his  Epis- 
iola,  49-55  n. 

Constance,  Council  of,  24  n. 

Constantinople  captured  by  the 
Crusaders  (a.d.  1204),  27 

Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  248, 
253  u.  I 

Cornwall,  dedications  in,  108 ; 
saints  of,  102  ff.,  302,  303 
n.  I 

Coronation  oath,  228 

Councils,  ecclesiastical,  exercise 
power  of  canonization,  22, 
24  n.,  48;  condemn  pagan 
superstitions,  313  11.3;  .synods 
in  Greek  Church,  352.  See 
Cloveshoo,  Constance,  Iladdan 

Creighton,   Mandell,   Bishop  of 


Index 


373 


Loudon,  quoted,  334,  35S  n.  i  ; 
on  Charles  I..  342 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  239,  339 
Crusades,  98;  treatment  of  Sara- 
cens by  S.  Louis,  57  n.  3,  59 
n.    I ;    S.   George    helps    the 
English,    88;    Christian    duty 
of,    71 ;    prophesied    b}-  Joan 
of  Arc,    62 ;    preached   bv   S. 
Richard   of  Chichester,  '268; 
end  of  the  Crusade  in  Spain, 
81,  82  n. 
Cuthberga,  Saint,  306  n.  i 
Cuthbert,   Archbishop   of  Can- 
terbury-,  corresponds  with  S. 
Boniface,  46 ;  quoted,  48  n.  2 
Cuthbert  of  Lindisfarne,  Saint, 
no  n.,   118,   123,   146,  149,  185- 
195,  203,  205,  219,  222.  224,  232, 
305,  315;  relics  of,  133  n.,  143; 
omitted  in  Anglican  Kalendar, 
33  n-  6 
Cuthburga,  Saint,  46  n.  i 
Cynehild,    fellow-worker   of  S. 

Boniface,  310 
Cyprian,    Saint,    quoted,   4,    22 

n.  I 
Cyril  ofjerusalem.  Saint,  quoted, 
'3,4 

Danes  at  Thetford,  138 ;  Danish 

invasions,      140 ;      Dunstan's 

policy      towards,      228,      231  ; 

Danescot,    159;    S.    Edmund, 

142,  and  S.  Alphege,  234,  235, 

martyred  by  Danes 
Daniel,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 

friend  of  S.  Boniface,  202  n. 
Dante  quoted,  64,  238 
David,   Saint,  Bishop  of  Mene- 

via,  104,  106,  107,  no  n. 
De  Guyon,  Madame,  322  n.  3 
Demetrius,  Saint,  88  n.  3 
Dictionary    of    National    Bio- 

gnphy.  44  n.  I,  223  n.  2,  226 

n.  I,  227  n.  I,  246  n.  2,  256  n.  2, 

317  n.  I 
Dodwell,  Henry,  the  Nonjuror, 

on  miracles,  282 
Dogma,  the  Welsh  attachment 

to,  109 
Dominic,  Saint,  211 
Dorotli}'   of  Pomesania,    Saint, 

275  n,  6 
Dreams,  293.     See  Fisions 


Druids,  100  n.  2,  103,  313 

Duchesne,  Abbe,  quoted,  113  n. 

Dunstau,  Saint,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbur}-,  no  n.,  227-231, 
233,  316  ;  helps  to  place  King 
Edward  on  the  throne,  156; 
an  authority  for  the  life  of 
S.  Edmund,  139,  141 

Durham  Cathedral  Church,  200, 
224;  relics  at,  193 

Dympna,  Saint,  306  n.  i 

Eadburg(h),  Saint,  127,  303,  304, 
306  n.  I 

E(a)dgar,  King,  friend  of  S. 
Dunstan,228;  orders  the  trans- 
lation of  S.  Swithun,  289 

Eadgyth,  Saint,  309.    See  Eiiith 

Eadmer,  155  n.  i  ;  lives  of  S. 
Edward  attributed  to,  179;  on 
S.  Anselm,  236  n.  3  ;  credulity 
and  credibility  of,  284 

E(a)dmund,  Saint,  no  n.  See 
Edmund 

E(a|dward.     See  Edzvard 

E{a)divanii  regis  et  tnartiris, 
Passio,  printed,  166-180 

E{a)dwine,  King,  41,  125,  127, 
128,  303,  306 

Eanswith,  Saint,  304,  306,  306 
n.  I 

Earle,  Professor  John,  on  the 
Alfred  Jewel,  149  n.  4;  on 
Alfred,  150  n.  4 

Eata,  Saint,  185 

Ebba,  Saint,  Abbess  of  Colding- 
ham,  141,  305,  306  n.  i 

E(c)gberct  of  lona,  203 

E(c)gbert,  King  of  England,  2S7 

E(c)gfrith,  King  of  Northum- 
bria,  312,  325  ;  invites  S.  Cuth- 
bert to  become  Bishop,  190; 
death  at  Nechtansmere,  191 

Eddi,  biographer  of  S.  Wilfrith, 
196 

Edgar,  King,  friend  of  S.  Dun- 
stan,  228  ;  orders  translation 
of  S.  Swithun,  289 

Edith,  Saint,  306  n.  i.  See 
Eadgvth 

Edith  of  Wilton,  Saint,  omitted 
in  Anglican  Kalendar,  33  n.  6 

Edmund,  Saint,  King  of  the 
East  English,  no  n.,  126,  326, 
341  ;  his  nephew  also  a  saint, 


374 


The  English  Saints 


31  n.  ;  authorities,  137  n.,  139; 
Asset's  account  of,  138 ;  "his 
possible  old  Saxon  origin, 
139;  his  reign,  140;  overcome 
by  the  Danes,  141 ;  martyred  by 
them,  142;  legends  of,  143,  146, 
147  ;  relics,  143  n.  ;  defender 
of  E.  Anglia  and  patron  of 
seafarers,  144;  patron  saint  of 
Richard  II.,  159  ;  miracles, 
145,280-282,  291-296;  transla- 
tion, 146,  147 ;  13th  century 
life,  148  n.  2  ;  his  resemblance 
to  Calderon's  "Constant 
Prince,"  72  n.  2 

Edmund  of  Abingdon,  Saint, 
266-268 ;  miracles,  295 

Edward  the  Confessor,  King 
and  Saint,  22  n.  3;  159-161  ; 
poetical  life  of,  quoted,  125, 
126 

Edward  the  Elder,  King,  152 

Edward  the  Martyr,  Saint,  King 
of  the  West  Saxons,  1 10  n., 
155-159;  Passio  it  Mira cilia 
printed,  166-179;  account  of 
the  MS.,  179,  180 

Edward  II.,  the  people  desire 
to  canonize,  161 

Edwin,  King,  41,  125,  127,  128, 
303,  306 

Egbert  of  lona,  203 

Egbert,  King  of  England,  287 

Egfrith,  King  of  Northumbria, 
312,  315;  invites  S.  Cuthbert 
to  hecome  Bishop,  190  ;  death 
at  Nechtansmere,  191 

Eikon  Basilike,  348 

Eisenach,  S.  Elizabeth's  chari- 
ties at,  51  n.;  her  hospital  at, 
52 

Elflede,  Saint,  306  n.  i 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  239,  337 

Elizabeth,  Queen  of  Portugal, 
Saint,  legend  of,  53  n.  3 

Elizabeth  of  Thuringia  (or  Hun- 
gary), Saint,  48-56;  authorities, 
48  n.  5 ;  birth,  49 ;  marriage, 
50;  cliildren,  51 ;  charities,  52; 
legends,  53  ;  her  ascetic  period, 
54;  niiracles,  55;  rehcs,  56  n. 
I  ;  in  modern  German  poetrv, 
56  n.  3 

Ely  Cathedral,  316;  S.  Audrey 
at,  315 


England,  patron  saint  of,  86-S9; 

conversion  of,  93  ff.  ;   Church 

of,  see  Church,  English  ;  Eng- 
lish kingship,  335  ff. ;  English 

womanhood,  321  fif. 
English  Chronicle  (Anglo-Saxon 

Chronicle),  140,   147  n.   i,  156, 

157,  234  n.  I,  326 
Epistola  ad Diognctnm  quoted,  5 
Erasmus,  70  n.  i,  241 
P-rmenburg    of   Mercia,    vSaint, 

w  ife  of  Merewald,  306 
Ermenhild    of    Mercia,    Saint, 

wife  of  Wulf  here,  306,  306  n.  i, 

317 
Ethelberht,    E.   Anglian   King, 

140  n. 
Ethelbert,  Saint,  127,  153  n.  i 
p;thelburg.  Saint,  wife  of  Ead- 

wine,  303,  304,  306,  306  n.  1 
Etheldreda,  Saint,   no  n.,   309, 

312.     See  A  lid  rev 
Ethelflted,    the     Lady    of    the 

Mercians,  133  n.  3 
Ethelred,  King,  125 
Ethelred,  Saint,  127,  306  n.  i 
Eucharist,   the   Hoi}-,  diptychs 

recited  at,  21  ;    vS.  Cuthbert's 

celebration  of,  189;  miracle  in, 

279;    S.    Margaret's   devotion 

to,  31S 
Eugenius   IV.,    Pope,  will    not 

canonize  King  Alfred,  152 
Evagrius,    Hist.    Eccl.    referred 

to,  330  n.  I 

Eaith,  the  ages  of  50 ;  the  com- 
pletion of,  331-366 

I'aricius,  biographer  of  vS.  Aid- 
helm,  96  n.  3 ;  207  n.  3 

Fathers  of  the  Church,  saints 
by  equivalent  canonization, 
26 

Ferdinand,  Saint  (San  P'ernan- 
do),  71 

Fernando,  San.     vSee  Ecrdiiiaud 

Ferrari,  Lucio,  Proiiipta  Jiihlio- 
theca  quoted,  23  n.  1-3,  25  n.  i, 
2,  4,  26  n.  I,  84  n.  3,  278 

Finnians,  the  two,  loi 

Fish,  Rev.  J.  L.,  on  S.  George, 
87  n.  I 

Fisher,  John,  l^eatified,  276  n.  i 

Flint,  Professor  Robert,  quoted, 
332 


Index 


375 


Foreign  cult  of  English  saints  : 
S.  Oswald,  132 ;  S.  Thomas  of 
Canterbur}-,  260 

France,  national  saints  of,  56-64   I 

Francis  of  Assisi,  vSaint,  189,  211, 
334  ;  contrast  with  S.  John  of 
the  Cross,  73,  74  ;  likeness  to 
S.  Martin,  97  n.  2  ;  S.  Eliza- 
beth adopts  his  rule,  52  ;  au- 
thorities, 65  n.  2,  67  n.  I,  69 
n.  I,  4;  character  of  in  the 
FiorcttU  66  ;  in  the  Speciiluiu 
Pcrfcctioiiis,  69;  approaches 
nearest  to  being  a  national 
Italian  saint,  66,  70. 

Francis  Xavier,  Saint,  Si  n.  i,    i 
82,  84,  85,  334 

Franciscans  attribute  to  Simon 
de  Montfort  the  glor_v  of  saint-    1 
hood,   271,  272 ;    at   Marburg, 
52  ;  S.  Elizabeth  a  Franciscan,    \ 
52,  54,  55  I 

Frazer,  J.  G.,  Tlie  Golden  Bough,    ' 
313  n.  2.  j 

Freeman,     Edward     Augustus, 
149  n.  I,  243  n.  2,  246  n.  2,  260   1 
n.  3,  262  n.  2,  238  n.  5  j 

Fremundus,  Saint,  31  n.  ! 

Friars,  mendicant,  intercede  for 
Jews,    329  ;    Minor,    seek    to 
make   Simon   de   Montfort  a   I 
martyr,    271.     See   Carmelites 
and  Franciscans 

Frideswide    of    Oxford,    Saint, 
306   n.    I,    309,    310-313,    319;    i 
omitted  in  Anglican  Kalendar,    j 
33  n-  6.  : 

Frisia,  Friesland,  45,  48  n.  i  ; 
S.  Wilfrith  in,  195-197 

Fronde,  James  Anthony,  quoted, 
5,  36,  102  n.  2,  215  n.'i 

Fulda,  martyrology  of,  28  n.  3 

Fursey,  203 

Fustel  de  Coulanges,  17  n.  2, 
95  n.  3  ;  quoted,  233  n. 

Gallican  line  of  influence  in 
early     English     Christianit}-, 

93>  95,  96 
Garter,  Order  of  the,  88  n.  4,  89 
Gaskell,    Mrs.,    Sylvia's   Lovcis 

referred  to,  307 
Gaspar  de  la  Annunciacion,  bio- 
grapher   of   S.   John    of   the 
Cross,  74,  75  n.  i 


Gasquet,  Rev.  Dr.  Francis  A., 
letters  to  the  Times,  143  n. 

Gaucher  of  Pontoise,  Saint,  the 
last  case  of  informal  canoni- 
zation (.''),  23 

Gaulish  saints  in  the  Kalendar 
of  Leofric  Missal,  28 

Geoffrey  de  Fontilms,  an  au- 
thority for  Saint  Edmund, 
137  n.,  139  n. 

George,  vSaint,  86-89  ;  Gibbon's 
account  of,  86 ;  legends  of,  87, 
358  n.  2  ;  representation  in  art, 
88;  churches  dedicated  in  his 
name,  89  n.  i 

Germany,  national  saints  of,  43- 
56 

Ghose,  A.  C,  Indian  Clinslians 
quoted,  15  n.  i 

Gibbon,  Z?ft-//;/(;'(?;/(^//^<!'// quoted, 
40  n.  2,  56,  57,  86,  128 

Gilbert  of  Sempringham,  vSaint, 
210,  211 

Gildas,  105 

Giles,  Saint,  98,  99 ;  authorities, 
99  n. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  240;  on  Arch- 
bishop Land,  276  n.  2  ;  quoted 
on  "the  supernatural,"  296 

Gheb,  Saint,  of  Russia,  41 

Goa,  Christian  population  of, 
15 ;  ruins  at,  S3,  85 ;  relics  at,  84 

Godric,  Saint,  219,  223-226 

Godstow,    Fair    Rosamund    at, 

215 
Gore,    Dr.    Charles,    Bishop   of 

Worcester,  quoted,  297 
Gorgona,  vSaint,  306  n.  i 
Goscelin,  hagiologist,  30 
Gossip,  211,  214,  221,  319 
Greek  race,  effect  of  Christianity 

on  the,  7,  8 
Gregory  the  Great,  Saint,  Pope, 

206;  quoted,  312;   association 

with  S.  Augustine,  97,  in- 114; 

on  miracles,  279 
Gregory  VII.,   Pope  and  saint, 

exam'ple  of  equivalent  canoni- 
zation, 26 
Gregory  of  Tours,  330  n.  i  ;  on 

miracles,    283 ;    value    as    an 

authority,  95  n.  3 
Greville-Nugent,  Hon.  Mrs.,  on 

Charles,    King    and     Martyr, 

339  "•,  349  "• 


376 


The  En'glish  Saints 


Grosseteste,  Robert,  266,  26S ; 
entitled  "  vSaint,"  272  ;  efforts 
for  canonization  fail,  273 

Gutlilac,  Saint,  219-222 

Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Coioicils, 
22  n.  2,  48  n.  2,  95  n.  2,  102 
n.  4,  5,  107  n.  I,  III  n.  I 

Hafrioloo;)-.  Lecture  I.  passim  ; 
run  mad,  74  ;   English,  27-34. 

Halberstadt,  stolen  relics  at,  27 

Hallucinations,  321 

Hardy,  Sir  T.  D.,  Descriptive 
Catalogue  of  Materials,  etc., 
17  n.  2,  116  n.  3,  212  n.  i,  219 
n.  I  ;  on  medieval  miracles, 
277:  on  I'ita  Oswald  i,  155 
n.  I 

Harold,  a  Ijoy  murdered  by  Jews, 

327 

Hauck,  Albert,  Kirchcuge- 
schichtc  Dciitschlands,  47  n.  4, 
48  n.  i;  quoted,  139  n.,  310 
n.  I 

Ha^les,  the  blood  of,  13S  n. 

Heavenfield,  Battle  of,  129;  site 
marked  by  a  cross,  132 

Helena,  »Saint,  306  n.  i 

Henr)-  II.,  King  of  England, 
pnd  S.  Hugh,  213,  214  n.  3; 
makes  Becket  Chancellor, 
243 ;  personal  relations  with 
Becket,  244,  245 ;  contention 
\s-itli,  247-250;  further  cause 
of  quarrel  ending  in  martj-r- 
dom,  253 

Henry  II.,  Saint  and  Emperor, 
160  n.  3,  161 

Henry  VI.,  337;  begs  for  canoni- 
zation of  King  Alfred,  152 ; 
revered  as  martyr,  162-165; 
monition  against  veneration 
of,  162  n.  5 

Henry  VII.  desires  canonization 
of  Henry  VI.,  164;  obtains 
Saint  Anselm's  canonization, 

153 

Henry  VIII.,  337;  said  to  have 
desired  Henrj- VI.'s  canoniza- 
tion, 165;  enemy  of  Becket's 
memory,  258 

Henson,  Canon  H.  Hensle}-, 
1 84  n.  2 

Herbert,  a  boy  murdered  by 
Jews,  327 


1   Hereford,   patron    saint   of,   153 
;        n.  I 

{   Her(i)mann      (Heremann),      an 
j       authority  for   the   cult   of  S. 

Edmund,     144    n.  ;     and    for 

miracles  of  the  same,  279-282 
Hermit,  meaning  of  tetm.   218 

n.  2;  hermit  saints,  218  ff. 
Herring,  Archbishop,  264  n. 
Hervey,      Lord      Francis,      his 

criticism    of  the    authorities 

for  vS.  Edmund,  138  n. 
Herwald,    two   mart\-rs   of  this 

name,  48 
Hii  (  =  Iona),  130  n. 
Hilda,    Saint,    no  n.,   224,  303, 

306-309,  315,  322;  miracles  of, 

291 
Hildelith,  Saint,  306  n.  r,  309 
Hobbes,  Thomas,  233 
Holmes,  Edmond  G.  A.,  quoted 

18  n.  2 
Horstmann,    Dr.  Carl,    30  n.    4, 

31,  32  (name  spelled  Horstman 

in  Nova  Lcgoida).     vSee  N'ova 

Legenda   and    Women  Saints, 

Lives  of 
Hort,    Dr.    F.     J.    A.,    quoted, 

90 
Huchyns,  Simon  (a.d.  1452),  263; 

on  proposed  canonization  of 

S.  Osmund,  22  n.  4 
Hugh  of  Lincoln  (Avalon),  Saint, 

212-218;     miracles,    279,   295; 

opposes    pagan    superstition, 

314  n. 
Hugh  of  Lincoln,  Little  Saint, 

327-329 
Hugh,    Saint,     disciple     of    S. 

David,  109  n.  2 
Humanism,  Christian,  357 
Humilit}-  of  vSaint  John  of  the 

Cross,  "74,  75 
Hungary,    Stephen    of,    41  ;    S. 

Elizabeth  of,  48-56 
Hunter,  Sir  W.  W.,   on   Chris- 

tainity  in  India,  15  n.  i 
Hunwald,   Earl,   betrayer  of  S. 

Oswine,  135 
Hutton,  Edward,  Studies  in  the 

Lives  of  the  Saints,  81 
Hutton,  Dr.  George,  201  n.  4 
Hutton,  W.  H.,  Saint  Thomas  of 

Canterbury,  160  n.  i,  239  n.  i, 

247  n.  2 


Index 


377 


Icelandic  Saga  of  S.  Edmunri, 

146  ;   Saga  of  S.  Oswald,  132  ; 

Saga     of    S.     Thomas,     240; 

quoted,  246,  265  n.  i,  284 
Ignatius  Loyola,  Saint,  81  n.  i, 

84 
Incorruptiou  of  saintly  bodies, 

I43>  315 
India,  effect  of  Christianitj'  on, 
15    n.,     15,     16  ;      Portuguese 
Christianity  in,  83,  85 
Inge,    W.    R.,    Christian    Mys- 
ticism, 20  n.  4 
Innocent  III.,  Pope,  insists  on 
formal  canonization,  23  n.  3  ; 
relations   with    S.    Alexander 
Nevski,  42 
Innocent  IV.,  Pope,  267 
Intercession  of  Saints,  360  n. 
Intercessor}'  powers   of  Saints, 

280,  281 
Investitures,    contest    concern- 
ing, 232,  236,  237 
Invocation  of  Saints,  316  n.  2 
lona,  130;  S.  Columba  at,  120 
Ireland,  Saints  of,  100-102 
Irish     influence      on     English 
Christianity,    1 16-123;  ^^^'^  of 
travel,   120  n.  2  ;    students   at 
Canterbury,  209 
Issey,  Saint,  of  Cornwall,  320 
Ital}',  t3'pical  saints  of,  64-70 
Itha,  of  Cornwall,  Saint,  320 

Jacobus  de  Voragine,  Legcnda 
A  urea,  30 

James,  Saint,  patron  of  Spain, 
82  n. ;  pilgrimage  to,  at  Com- 
postella,  224 

James,  Dr.  Montague  Rhodes, 
323n.  2,325  n.  i,  143  n.,32n.  2 

James,  Professor  William,  70 
n.  I ;  The  Varieties  of  Re- 
ligious Experience,  18  n.  i, 
19  n.  2,  20  n.  3,  356  n.  1-3,  357, 
359  n.  I 

Japan,  vSaint  Francis  Xavier  in, 
85  n.  I 

Jarrow,  Bede  at,  200 

Jews,  murder  of  Christian  chil- 
dren, legend,  323;  no  truth  in 
stories  of  ritual  murder  l)y, 
323  n.  2  ;  supposed  origin  of, 
324,  325  ;  outrages  on,  32S 

Joan  of  Arc,  56  n.  4,  60-64 ;  au- 


thorities, 60  n.  I,  313  n.  2;  her 

achievements,     60 ;     militar}- 

genius,  61 ;  her  aims  and  mis- 
sion,  61    n.,    62;    visions,    62; 

devotion,  63  ;  her  appearance, 

63,  64 
John    Baptist    College,    Oxford, 

Saint,  MS.  96  printed,  166-180 
John  of  Beverle}-,  vSaint,  285,  286, 

315 
John  of  the  Cross,  Saint,  73-75  ; 

canonization     of     75     n.     i  ; 

quoted,  19,  20 
John  of  God,  Saint  (vSan  Juan 

de   Dios),   82-84 ;    authorities, 

82  n.  I ;  his  good  works,   83  ; 

canonized,  84  n.  i 
John  XV.,  Pope,  begins  formal 

canonization  (?),  23  n.  3 
John    of  Tynemouth,    303  n.  3, 

304,  310  n.  2;  \\\s  Sanctilogiuiu, 

3O'  3 1 -33-     See  Nova  Legenda 
Joinville,       on      Saint     Louis, 

quoted,  57-59 
Joly,    M.     H.,     Psychologic  des 

Saints,  20  n.  i,  21  n.  i,  65 
Juan  de  Dios,  San,  82-84.     See 

John  of  God 
Juan  de  la  Cruz,  San,  71.     See 

John  of  the  Cross 
Juletta,    Nonne,    a     captive    in 

Il:)eria,  306  n.  i 
Juliana  of  Norwich,  320 
Juliana,  vSaint,  confusion  of  the 

name  in  England,  320 
Julitta,  of  Tarsus,  Saint,  320 
Jutwara,  Saint,  312 

Kafirs,  effect  of  Christianity  on, 
12 

Kalendars ;  their  historj-  and  im- 
portance, 21,  27,  28  and  n.  1, 
29  ;  of  Leofric  Missal,  28  ;  the 
Anglican,  33,  335,  350;  desir- 
ability of  extending,  355,  356  ; 
Gallic,  48  ;  Roman,  changes  in 
Poland,  42  n.  i 

Keble,  John,  on  King  Charles 
the  Martyr,  342 

Kenelm,  of  Mercia,  Saint,  1 10  n., 
i53.n.  I,  153.  154 

Kentigern,  Saint,  1 17-120 

Keyne,  Saint,  303,  312,  319 

King,  Mrs.  Hamilton,  The  Dis- 
ciples, quoted,  68 


378 


The  English  Saints 


Kin<,^ship,  Englisli,  pathos  of, 
335.  336 

Kingsle}-,  Charles,  102  u.  2,  219 
11.  i;  The SaiiWs  Tragedy, ^f)\\. 

Kyneburg,  Saint,  of  Peter- 
borough, 306,  306  n.  I 

Kynegils,  West  Saxon  King,  130 

Kyneswith,  of  Peterborough, 
Saint,  306,  306  n.  i 

Laufranc,  230,  235 

Langton,  Stephen,  258,  265,  266 

Latin  races,  effect  of  Christianity 
on  the,  8 

Laud,  William,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  276;  on  Charles  I., 
343  ;  speeches,  339  n. 

Legends  of  the  Saints,  their 
value,  17;  growth  of,  30  n.  3; 
seen  in  Adaninan's  Life  of 
Coluviba,  284  ;  S.  Aniphibalus, 
94;  -5ithelfryth,  313  n.  2; 
Christian  child  murdered  by 
Jews,  323  ;  S.  Columba,  120  n. 
I  ;  S.  Cuthbert,  186  n.  4,  187  ; 
S.  Dunstan,  230;  S.  Edmund, 
137,  140  n.,  143;  S.  Etheldreda, 
312  ;  S.  Edward  the  Confessor, 
159,  160;  S.  Elizabeth,  53;  S. 
Francis,  67 ;  S.  Frideswide, 
310  ;  S.  George,  86-89,  358  n.  2; 
S.James,  89;  S.  Kenelni,  153 
n.  2 ;  vS.  Martin,  98  n.  i  ;  S. 
Mildred,  305;  S.  Oswald,  358 
n.  2 ;  S.  Patrick,  100  n.  2  ; 
Richard  I.,  336;  S.  Thomas 
of  Canterbury-,  260,  261 ;  Vener- 
able Bede,  199,  200;  S.  Wer- 
burga,  317;  Welsh  saints,  106 

Leo  I.,  the  Great,  Pope,  vSaint, 
quoted,  37,  and  n.  2 

Leo  III.,  Pope,  begins  formal 
canonization  (.=),  23  n.  3 

IvCo  XIII.,  Pope,  approves  beati- 
fication of  Fisher  and  More, 
276  n.  I  ;  his  gift  of  supposed 
relics  of  S.  Edmund,  143 

Leobgyth,  310 

Leofric  Missal,  Kalendar  of,  28 

Lewis  IV.,  Landgrave  of  Thu- 
ringia,  husband  of  S.  p;iiza- 
beth,  50-54 

Liebermann,  F.,  editor  of  Die 
Hciligcn  Eno^/aiids  and  Uii- 
gcdi  uckte    aiiglouonnaniiisclic 


(icsc/iiihtsqucllni,  quoted,  94 
n.  I,  I26n.  I,  127  n.  i,  133  n.  3, 
137  n.,  143  n.,  144  n,  150  n.  3, 
236  n.  3,  265  n.  5,  280,  291,  295, 
303  n.  3,  304  n.  4,  305  n.  i ;  on 
miracles,  293,  295,  296 

Lightfoot,  Joseph  Barl)er,  Bishop 
of  Durham,  133,  182  n.  i,  2, 
205  n.  I,  306  n.  2,  309 

Lindisfarne,  S.  Aidan'sSee.  129; 
S.  Aidan  at,  183,  186;  S.  Cuth- 
bert at,  188,  189 ;  Gospels, 
story  of,  194 

Lindsey,  reception  of  S.  Oswald's 
body  in,  133  n.  3 

Lioba,  Saint,  46  n.  i 

Lippomanus,  Aloysius,  of  Ve- 
rona, 33 

Little,  Professor  A.  G.,  65  n.  2 

Louis,  Saint,  King  of  France, 
56-59,  71  n.  I,  334  ;  authorities, 
57  n.  I ;  character,  57  ;  impor- 
tance, 63 

Luis  de  Leon,  Fray,  biographer 
of  S.  Teresa,  story  of,  76  n.  i  ; 
quoted,  80  n.  1,  4 

Lullus,  Saint,  of  Mainz,  46  n.  i 

Luther,  admired  S.  PUizabeth, 
56  n.  2 

Mackinlay,  Rev.  J.  B.,  O.S.B., 
letters  to  the  Times,  143  n. 

Macrina,  vSaint,  306  n.  i 

Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  201 
n.  4,  206  n.  5,  267  n.  2 

Magna  Viia  S.  Hugonis,  213 

Maitland,  Professor  F.  W.,  on 
criminous  clerks,  248 

Malmesbury,  the  Abbey  of,  207; 
William  of,  see  WilUaui 

Manuscripts  quoted,  MvS.  Add. 
17376  (British  INIuseum),  273 
n.  2;  MS.  Bodleian  240,  147 
n.  3;  MS.  Bodl.  343,  English 
sermon  on  S.  Edmund,  139  n.; 
MS.  Bodl.  285,  154  n. ;  MS.  96, 
at  S.  John  Baptist  College, 
Oxford,  155  n.  i ;  the  same 
printed  for  the  first  time,  167- 
180;  MvS.  Tanner  in  Bodleian, 
352  n.  3 

ISIarburg,  S.  Elizabeth  at,  54 
n.  I 

^Margaret,  Queen  of  Scots,  Saint, 
279,  306  n.  I,  317,  318  ;  example 


Index 


379 


of   equivalent    canonization, 
26 
Martiloge,  printed  in  1526,  29 
Mdvtiloge,  Whytford's,  144  n.  i, 

146  n.  7,  152  11.  2,  161  n.  2 
Martin  of  Tours,  Saint,  95,  96, 
TIG  n.,  iiS,  121,  229,  232;  vin- 
dicates the  Bishop's  power  of 
canonization,  26  n.  3  ;  authori- 
ties for,  95  n.  3 ;  w^ork  and 
character,  97,  98,  100,  loi  ; 
miracles  of,  284  ;  churches 
dedicated  to,  117 
Martyrdom  of  S.  Alban,  93,  94; 
S.  Alphege,  234;  Becket  (S. 
Thomas  of  Canterburv),  253- 
256 ;  S.  Boniface,  47 ;  SS. 
Boris  and  Glyeb,  41  ;  King 
Eadwine  (reputed),  128;  S. 
Edmund,  142  ;  King  Edward, 
156-158 ;  the  two  Herwalds, 
48;  S.  Kenelm,  154;  S.  Wil- 
liam of  Norwich,  324 ;  other 
Christian  boys,  327 
Martyrologies,  their  histor}'  and 
importance,  21,  22,  28,  29; 
Dlartyrology  of  Govuian,  Irish, 
110,  116  n.  2 
Martyrs,  their  position  in  the 
Church,  21,  22,  28;  mart3TS 
for  discipline,  249;  "martirem 
pena  non  facit  sed  causa," 
326;  royal  martyrs,  153  n.  i: 
e.g.,  S/  Kenelni,  154 ;  King 
Edward  the  Martyr,  155-159: 
Henry  VI.  regarded  as  a 
martyr,  162 ;  Charles  I.  the 
Martyr,  337-353  ;  cf.  Simon  de 
Montfort,  270,  271 
Maserfield,  Battle  of,  131 
Mass,      evening     (vespertinalis 

missa)  in  Adamnan,  122  n.  i 
Maxentia,  Saint,  306  n.  i 
Mechtilde,  Saint,  306  n.  i 
Medieval  ideals,  their  value  in 

modern  times,  91 
ISIenology  of  England  and  Wales, 

Stanton's,  152  n.  2 
Middle  Ages  furnish  types  for 

modern  times,  91 
Milburga,  Saint,  306  n.  i 
IVIildred,  Saint,  127.  304-306 
Milman,  Latin  Christianity,  26 

n.  2,  27  n.,  43  n.  2,  87  n.  i 
Miracles    absent    from   S.    Pat- 


rick's writings,  101  ;  continu- 
ous miracles  evidence  for 
equivalent  canonization,  25 ; 
medieval  miracles,  17 

Excursus  on  English  medi- 
eval miracles,277-298;  miracles 
do  not  make  a  saint,  277 ;  j-et 
almost  indispensable  for 
canonization,  278  ;  Divine 
power  is  not  claimed  for  the 
wonder-workers,  280 ;  but 
exercised  in  and  through  the 
Church,  282  ;  imitative  char- 
acter of  some  miracles,  283, 
293 ;  exact  accuracy  in  the 
stories  not  to  be  expected, 
283,  284,  296,  297 ;  stead}^ 
growth  in  the  stories,  2S4; 
typical  cases  of  medieval 
miracles,  285-290;  tentative 
classification,  290,  291  ;  {a)  acts 
of  vengeance,  291,  292  ;  {b)  acts 
of  compassion,  293-295 ;  the 
latter  subdivided  into  (a)  imi- 
tative, 293  ;  (j3)  dreams,  293  ; 
(7)  coincidences,  293,  294; 
(5)  natural  causes,  294,  295; 
another  classification,  295; 
some  relation  with  the  saint 
necessary  before  the  miracle. 
295  ;  the  general  question  of 
miracles  is  philosophical,  297  ; 
but  the  main  question  is  one 
of  evidence  aiul  criticism,  296, 
297  ;  and  of  "  Personality  and 
Will,"  298 

Miracles  of  vS.  Aidan,  186 ; 
S.  Alban,  94;  S.  Aldhelm,  209; 
King  Alfred,  152;  S.  Anselm, 
236  n.  3,  293,  295  ;  S.  Audrey, 
303  ;  S.  Augustine  of  Canter- 
bury, 112;  S.  Cedoc  of  Llan- 
carfan,  291  ;  Charles  I ,  King 
and  Martyr,  349  n.  i  ;  S.  Co- 
lumba,  123,  284,  291  ;  S.  Cuth- 
bert,  186  n.  4,  189-191,  194; 
S.  Dunstan,  230,  293  ;  S.  Ed- 
mund, 137,  145,  280-2S2,  291- 
296 ;  S.  Edmund  of  Abingdon, 
267,  295 ;  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor, 160 ;  King  Edward  the 
Martvr,  158,  180;  S.  Elizabeth, 
55;  S.  Etheldreda,  312;  S. 
Francis  Xavier,  85  n.  2 ;  S. 
Frideswide,    310,   311;     King 


38o 


The  English  Saints 


Henry  the  youii,£fer,  son  of 
Henry  XL,  269;  Henry  VI., 
165  n.  2;  S.  Hilda,  291,  303; 
S.  Hugh,  217,  295;  S.  John  of 
Beverley,  285,  286;  S.  John  of 
the  Cross,  74 ;  S.  Kenehn, 
154;  S.  Keyne,  303;  S.  Mar- 
tin, 95  n.  3,  284 ;  S.  Oswald, 
134  n.,  293;  S.  Oswin,  136  n. ; 
S.  Richard  of  Chichester,  268; 
the  holy  hoy  Robert,  327  n.  3; 
Simon  de  Montfort,  271  n.  i  ; 
S.  vSwithnn,  288-290;  S.  Thomas 
of  Canterbury,  292,  293  ; 
Thomas,  Earl  of  Lancaster, 
274;  S.  Werburga,  317;  S. 
Wilfrith,  196;  S.  William  of 
Norwich,  286,  287,  327;  miracle 
told  by  Gregory  of  Tours,  330 
n.  I 

Missionary  work,  results  of 
modern,  9-15  ;  importance  of 
the  teaching  of  the  first 
preachers,  92 ;  work  of  S. 
Boniface,  45-47  ;  S.  Coluniba, 
120 ;  English  women  saints, 
46  n.,  306,  309,  310;  S.  Francis 
Xavier,  85 ;  S.  Martin,  96,  97, 
100  n.  2 ;  S.  Patrick,  100  n.  2, 
loi  ;  S.  Vladimir,  41,  42  ;  of  the 
other  Russian  saints,  43 :  in 
the  Welsh  Church,  liniited 
nature  of,  102;  of  S.  Wilfrith, 
195-197;  S.  Willibrord,  46,  48 
n.  I 

Mommsen,  Dr.  Theodor,  J13  n. 

Monastery  for  men  and  women 
at  Whitby,  306-308 

INIonasticism,  i8[-226  ;  Irish, 
185  ;  Welsh,  100  n.  2 

Modwen,  Saint,  306  n.  i 

Monica,  Saint,  306  n.  i 

Montalembert  on  S.  IvH/.abeth, 
50  n.  I 

More,  vSir  Thomas,  70  n.  i,  276 

Miiller,  F.  M.,  witness  to  the 
power  of  Christ,  15  n.  i 

Mungo,  vSaint,  117.  See /u^nti- 
gern 

Munzer,  Thomas,  359 

Mystics,  S.  Teresa,  79 ;  mystics 
among  Englishwomen  saints, 
320 

Nelson,  Lord,  240 


Nennius,  quoted,  131  n. 

Neot,  Saint,  legends  of,  150  n.  i 

Nestor,  ChiO)nch'  of,  40  n.  i,  41 
n.  I,  3 

Newbolt,  Canon  W.  C.  E., 
Priestly  Blemishes  quoted,  39 
n.  I 

New  Guinea,  effect  of  Chris- 
tianity on,  13,  14 

New  Testament  conception  of 
the  saint,  19 

Nicholas  V.,  Pope,  22 

Nicholas,  Saint,  145  n. 

Ninian,  Saint,  116-118;  miracle 
of,  280 

Norbert,  Saint,  example  of 
equivalent  canonization,  26 

Norgate,  Miss  Kate,  on  Becket, 
246  n.  2,  258  n.  I  ;  value  of  her 
work,  256  n.  2  ;  uses  the  form 
"a  Becket,"  238  n.  5 

Norway,  Olaf  of,  41 

Nova  Legenda  AngUe,  30-33,  44 
n.  I,  94  n.  3,  116  n.  i,  3,  118 
n.  I,  128  n.  3,  130  n.,  134  n., 
141  n.,  143  u..  146  n.  I,  5,  147 
n.  I,  3,  148  n.  I,  153  n.  2,  154 
n.  I,  155  n.  I,  192  n.  i,  196  n.  2, 
199  n.  2,  207  n.  3,  210  n.,  212 
n.  I,  219  n.  I,  220  n.  3,  221  n.  2, 
223  n.  2,  234  n.  I,  236  n.  3,  239 
n.  I,  261  n.  T,  267  n.  2,  287  n.  i, 
303  n.  2,  3,  304  n.  4,  305  n.  i,  2, 
306  n.  2,  310  n.  2,  312  n.  2,  4, 
317  n.  I,  318  n.  I,  327  n.  i,  7 

OfFa,  King  of  the  East  Anglians, 
139  n.  I 

Olaf  of  Norway,  41 

Olga  of  Russia,  Saint,  40,  41 

Olier,  Lettres,  quoted,  37  n.  i 

Oquendo,  Admiral,  story  of,  75 
n.  2 

Order  of  Charitv  founded  bv 
S.  John  of  God,  83 ;  Order  of 
the  Garter,  88  n.  4,  89 ;  Order 
founded  by  Gilbert  of  Sem- 
pringham, '210,  211;  military 
Order  in  honour  of  S.  Thomas, 
240  n.  2.  vSee  Caniielites, 
Frarieisca;/s,  Friars,  Thealines 

Osgod  Clapa,  147,  282,  292 

Ositha,  Saint,  306  n.  i 

Osmund  of  Salisbury,  Saint, 
reverenced      before      formal 


Index 


381 


canonization,  22 ;  omitted  in 
Anglican  Kalendar,  33  n.  6 ; 
canonization  of,  263 ;  miracles 
essential  to  his  canonization, 
278 

Osthr3-d,  Queen  of  the  Mercians, 
niece  of  S.  Oswald,  132,  133  n.  3 

Oswald,  Saint,  King  of  North- 
unibria,  no  n.,  126,  12S-136; 
authorities,  12S  n.  3 ;  life  and 
reign,  129-131  ;  death,  131  ; 
churches  dedicated  to  him, 
131,  132  ;  foreign  cult  of,  132, 
133 ;  Sarum  collect  for,  133 ; 
relics,    133   n.,   193;   miracles, 

133  n.  3 ;  his  death  day  and 
permanent  fame,  136;  legends 
of,  358  n.  2 

Oswald  of  York,  Saint,  anony- 
mous Life  of,  228  n. 
Oswen,  Saint,  306  n.  i 
Oswestry,  131  n.,  132,  133  n.  3 
Oswin(e),   Saint,   KingofDeira, 
nephew  of  S.  Oswald,  no  n., 
126,      134-136;       authorities, 

134  n.  ;    life   and  reign,    134, 

135  ;  death,  136  ;  friend  of 
S.  Aidan,  1S6 

Oswiu,  King  of  Bernicia,  re- 
covers relics  of  S.  Oswald, 
133  n.  ;  attacks  his  nephew,  S. 
Oswine,  135  ;  orders  him  to  be 
slain,  136 

Padarn,  Saint,  104 
Pancras,  boy  martyr,  326 
Paris,     Matthew,     on     Stephen 

Langton,  265 
Pater,  Walter,  quoted,  335,   357 

n.  2 
Patrick,  Saint,  100,  loi 
Patriotism     and    hagiology    in 

Russia,  43  ;  in  France,  64 
Pattison,  Mark,  quoted,  280 
Paulinus,  the  Apostle  of  North- 

unibria,  127,  128,  182,  306 
Peirio,  Saint,  108 
Penda,  King  of  Mercia,  133  n. ; 

besieges  Bamborough,  186 
Perrinchief's  Roval  Martyr,  344, 

345 
Philip  Neri,  Saint,  70  n.  2 
Philothea  of  Athens,  Saint,  352 

n.  I 
Pictures,  Sacred,  their  effect  on 


S.  Vladimir,  41  ;  S.  Elizabeth's 
opinion  of  52 ;  an  exciting 
cause  of  "dream"  miracles, 
293;  Carpaccio's  S.  George, 
87  n.  I  ;  Giotto's  S.  Louis,  57  ; 
picture  of  Richard  II.  at 
Wilton  House,  159;  pictures 
of  martyrdom  of  S.  Thomas, 
241 ;  icons  in  Russia,  43  ;  icons 
of  S.  Demetrius,  88  n.  3 

Pilgrimages  of  S.  Godric,  223, 
224 ;  the  Canterbury  pil- 
grimage, 242 ;  pilgrimages  to 
Little  S.  Hugh  of  Lincoln,  328 

Pisa,  relics  at,  27 

Pitt,  William,  239 

Plummer,  Rev.  Charles,  editor 
of  Bede  and  the  Knglish 
(Anglo-Saxon)  Chronicle,  his 
notes  on  Bede,  93  n.  i,  :oo 
n.  2,  114  n.  I,  2,  120  n.  i,  130 
n.  I,  132  n.  2,  133  n.  3,  19711.5, 
199  n.  I,  2CO  11.  I,  2CI  11.  3,  206 
n.  3,  4,  219  n.  I,  235  n.  i,  314 
n.  I  ;  on  the  Chronicle,  138 
n.  I,  219  n.  I,  327  n.  i  ;  on 
King  Alfred,  149  n.  i,  2,  150 
I,  3,  4  n.  2  ;  on  S.  Edward  the 
Martyr,  155  n.  i,  2;  on  S. 
Kenelm,  153  n.  2 

Pollock,  Sir  Frederick,  on  King 
Alfred,  150  n.  3 

Popes,  the,  claim  power  to 
canonize,  23  ;  Papal  Bull 
issued  in  case  of  S.  Elizabeth, 
55  n.  2.    See  Canonization 

Portugal,  national  saints  of,  82- 
85;    S.    Elizabeth,    Queen    of, 

53  u- 3 

Powell,  J.  U.,  Fellow  of  S.  John 
Baptist  College,  Oxford,  on 
local  legends  of  S.  Thomas  of 
Canterbur}-,  260,  261  11. 

Probus  and  Grace,  Saints,  302, 
303  n.  I 

Purgator}-,  S.  Catherine  of 
Genoa's  treatise  on,  65  n.  i 

Reformation,  the,  70  n.  i,  332, 
ZZli^  ZZ^^  357,  359  ;  Formularies 
oj  Faith,  361  n.  ;  in  Spain,  74  ; 
in  England,  165 ;  in  Spanish 
church  bj-  S.  Teresa,  79,  80; 
closes  the  canon  of  English 
saints,  334 


382 


The  English  Saints 


Ref,dnal(l,  a  Durluuii  nioiik, 
avithority  for  Life  of  S.  Os- 
wald, 130  n.,  131  n. 

Regna.  vSaiut,  306  n.  i 

Relics,  Kasterii,  brouj^ht  home 
by  Crusaders,  27 ;  of  King 
Alfred,  152;  of  S.  Audrey  (in- 
corruptible), 315,  316;  of  S. 
Cullil)ert,  193;  of  S.  Edmund, 
143  n. ;  King  ICdward  the 
Martyr,  158;  of  8.  Elizabeth, 
56  n.  I  ;  of  S.  Erancis  Xavier, 
84  n.  2,  3;  of  S.  Oswald,  133  n., 
193;  of  S.  Osvvine,  136;  of 
Venerable  Bede,  193;  of  S. 
Werburga,  317  ;  vS.  Hugh's 
treatnient  of,  214,  215  n.  i 

Renaissance,  the,  70  n.  i,  357 

A'evela/io>is  of  Divine  Love,  ed. 
Collins,  320  n.  i 

Richard  I.  of  P^ngland,  88,  336; 
and  S.  Hugh,  212  u.  i,  214 

Richard  II. 's  portrait  and  patron 
saints,  159 

Richard  (de  Wyche)  of  Chiches- 
ter, Saint,  267,  268 

Robert,  a  bo}-  murdered  b}- 
Jews,  327 

Robert  of  Knaresborough,  Saint, 
222 

Roch,  Saint,  canonized  by  the 
Council  of  Constance,  24  n. 

Roman  Catholic  theory  of 
canonization,  23 

Roman  Christianity  in  early 
Britain,  93 

Romanus  and  David,  Saints, 
42  n.  I 

Romwald,  vSaint,  example  of 
equivalent  cononization,  26 

Rosamuiul,  Eair,  215 

Roscarrok'sZi-yl'  of  Saijit  Chris- 
tina, 30  n.  4 

Round,  J.  H.,  on  vS.  Thomas  of 
Canterbury,  243  n.  2,  247  n.  2 

Riiskin,  John,  quoted,  307;  re- 
ference to,  87  n.  I 

Russia,  national  saints  of,  40-43 

Sal)atier,  Paul,  quoted,  66  n., 
67  n.,  69  n. 

Sacraments,    value   of,   in   mis- 
sions, 13  n.     See  Eucharist 
roughly  at  the   Reformation, 
334;     cult   of    English    saints 


Sadolet(o),  Jacopo,  70  n.  i 

Saint,  the,  what  he  is,  359;  is 
the  nornuil  Christian,  18;  not 
infallible,  342  ;  his  position  in 
the  life  of  the  Midcile  Ages, 
231,  35^ ;  in  the  fourteenth 
century  saintship  was  the 
recognition  of  an  honest  poli- 
tical creed,  274 ;  deterioration 
of  the  saintly  ideal,  360 

Saints,  technical  meaning  of  the 
word,  25  ;  lives  of  the  saints, 
16-34;  saints  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, 18,  19,  25;  their  unity 
more  important  than  their 
variety,  89,  90 ;  their  unity 
with  Christ,  37 ;  their  lesson 
to  the  modern  world,  356  ff.  ; 
modern  need  of  commemorat- 
ing saintly  lives,  355,  356 

,  "The  Age  of  Saints"    in 

Wales,  105,  106 

,  the  communion  of,  3, 4,  34, 

361  n. ;  impossible  outside  the 
cliurch,  24 

,  the,  in  art.     See   Pictures, 

Statues 

,   intercession   of   the,   360- 

361  n. ;  cf.  280-282 

,  invocation  of,  316  n.  2;  cf. 

144,  145 

by  grace  of  the  people  22, 

26 ;  by  popular  voice  (the 
Cid),  72  ;  by  tradition  (Ethel- 
red  and  Eadwine),  125 

— —  l)y  succession  or  profession 
in  the  Welsh  Church,  103,  105 
n.  I,  108 

,  local,  22,  27,   107,   153  n.  I  ; 

in  Germany,  43;  King  Alfred, 
152;  S.  David,  106 

,  National,  38  ff.  ;  of  Russia, 

40-43  ;  of  Germany,  43-56  ;  of 
France,  56-64  ;  of  Italy,  64-70; 
of  Spain,  71-81  ;  of  Portugal, 
82-85  ;  of  England,  86 

,  Patron,  of  Spain,  81,  82  n., 

89 ;  of  P^ngland,  86-89  I  of 
Hereford,  153  n.  i ;  of  Richard 

11.,  159 
,  Royal  and  princel}-.     See 

Elizabeth,  Louis,  Olga,  Vladi- 

VI ii;  and  Saints,  En_Q-tish 
,  English,  pre-Norman,  232; 

canon  of  English  saints  closes 


Index 


383 


abroad,  S.  Oswald  132,  S. 
Thomas  260 ;  English  saints 
in  12th  century  Irish  martyr- 
olog}',  no 

,  ,  Children  among  the, 

322-330 

,  ,   Political,   how  they 

first  arose,  231-233 

,    ,    Royal,     125-166;    S. 

Audrey,  315;  SS.  Frideswide 
and  Etheldreda,  309;  S.  Wer- 
burga,  317  ;  see  also  Cnth- 
buiga,  FroniDidus 

, ,  Statesmen,  227-276; 

S.  Margaret,  318 

,  — -,  Women.     See  under 

Women 

S.  Albans,  S.  Christina  vener- 
ated at,  30  n.  4 ;  gap  in 
chroniclers  of,  filled  by  John 
of  Tynemouth,  32 

St.  C3-res,  Viscount,  Fenelon,  ■^'2'2 

S.  John  Baptist  College,  Oxford, 
MS.  96  printed,  167-180 

Salisbur}-,  Marquis  of,  on  Queen 
Victoria,  354 

Sanctit}-,  medieval,  not  incom- 
patible with  political  responsi- 
bility, 231 

Saiidus,  meaning  of  the  term, 
25.     See  Saint[s) 

Sanday,  Dr.  William,  on  Per- 
sonality and  Will,  298 

SariDii  Breviary,  133,  142,  159; 
Missal,  158 

Savvatii,  Saint,  of  Russia,  42 

Saxons,  the  Old  or  Continental, 

139.  197  . 

Scrope,  Archbishop,  regarded 
as  martyr,  275 

Sculpture',  117 

Sea,  vS.  Columba's  fearlessness 
of,  121  ;  S.  Edmund  invoked 
at,  144,  145 ;  sea  and  ship- 
wreck, S.  John  of  Beverley's 
intervention,  285 

Sebastian,  Saint,  143 

"  Second  Sight,"  293 

Seebohm,  F.,  on  Alfred,  150  n.  3 

Sexburg,  Saint,  304,  306  11.  i 

Shakespeare,  122  n.  i,  165  n.  2  ; 
quoted,  y^':),  336 

Siena,  65 

Simeon  of  Durham,  quoted, 
131  n.,  134  n.  3 


Simon  de  Montfort,  163,  239, 
269-272 

Sincerity,  of  Bede,  202 ;  of  S. 
Hugh,  213-215 

Spain,  austerity  of  the  national 
character,  75,  76;  national 
saints  of,  71-81;  reformation 
of  Spanish  Church  bj-S.  John 
of  the  Cross,  73  ;  Philip  II.  of, 
72  n.  I 

Spinoza,  quoted,  6 

Springs,  cult  of  62  ;  Druid 
veneration  of,  120-1  ;  miracles 
connected  with,  303,  312-313 

Statue  of  Henrj-  VI.,  162 ;  of 
S.  Vladimir,  41  n.  i.  See 
Sculpture 

Stephen  of  Hungary,  41 

vStevenson,  R.  L.,  on  Missions, 

14,  15 
Stigmata,  borne  by  S.   Francis, 

68;  borne  by  S.  John  of  the 

Cross,  74 
Stokes,   Professor  G.   S.,  on  S. 

George,  86  n.  i 
Strong,     Dr.    T.    B.,    Dean     of 

Christ    Church,     quoted,    358 

"•  3.  359  "•  2 
Stubbs,  Dr.  C.  W.,  Dean  of  Ely, 

312  n.  4,  316  n.  2 
Stubbs,     Dr.     W.,     Bishop     of 

Oxford,  quoted,  17  n.  i,  48  n. 

2  and  3,  93  n.  i,  108  n.  2,  149 

n.    I,    161    n.  3,    199  n.   i,  201 

n.  8,  9,  227  n.  I,  228  n.  2,  230, 

271  n.  I,  274  n.  3,  4,  5-30311-  3. 

304  n.  2,  317  n.  I,  328  n.  i,  355 

n.  I.     See  Haddan 
Surius,    Laurence,    of  Cologne, 

33,  116  n.  I 
Sutton,    H.    S.,    A    Preacher's 

Soliloquy,  quoted,  19  n.  i 
Sviatopolk    murders   SS.    Boris 

and  Glyeb,  41 
Swegen,  King,  281,  291,  294 
Swithun,  Saint,  287-290 

Tata,  304.     See  Ethclburg 

Tecla,  Saint  (Thecla),  46  n.  i,  310 

Teilo,  Saint,  104 

Tennysor,  quoted,  16 

Teresa,  Saint,  71,  320,  334; 
authorities,  76  n.  2;  auto- 
biography, ibid. ;  childhood, 
77  ;  her  inner  life,  78,  79  ;  her 


384 


The  English  Saints 


writings,  80  11.  2  ;  joyfuhiess 
of  her  devotion,  .So  n.  4; 
canonized,  81  n.  i  ;  quoted,  6- 
7  n.,  75  n.  I  ;  Li/c  of,  quoted, 
34  ;  attempt  to  make  her 
patroness  of  Spain,  81  n. 

Tertullian,  quoted,  353  n.  2 

Teutonic  races,  effect  of  Chris- 
tianit}-  on,  8,  9,  300 ;  purit}' 
akin  to  Christian  morals,  113 

Theatines,  founded  by  S.  Caje- 
tan,  70  n.  I 

Thecla  (Tecla),  vSaint,  46  n.  i,  310 

Theobald,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, 243,  247 

Theodore  of  Tarsus,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  113  n.,  209 

Theodorite,  Saint,  of  Russia,  43 

Thietmar,  Chronicon,  quoted, 
40  n.  2,  234  n.  I 

Thomas  of  Canterburj-,  Thomas 
the  Martyr,  Saint'  (Thomas 
Becket),  27,  29,  146,  152  n.  4, 
213,  225,  230,  233,  234,  238-266, 
326 ;  authorities,  239  n.  i,  246 
n.  2 ;  canonization,  240,  262  ; 
church  dedications,  240  n.  3  ; 
early  relics,  240,  241  ;  shrine, 
241  ;  his  life,  242  ;  Chancellor, 
243 ;  relations  with  Henr}-  II., 
244 ;  his  magnificence,  245  ; 
Archbishop,  247  ;  contention 
with  Henry  II.,  247-250;  flight, 
250;  return,  251,  252  ;  further 
quarrel,  253  ;  niart3'rdom,  254, 
255 ;  miracles,  256,  260,  262, 
280,  284,  292-294;  Canterbur}' 
water,  284,  294;  national  hero, 
256;  greatness,  257;  his  letters, 
258  ;  shrine  rifled,  258 ;  con- 
trasted with  vS.  Anselm,  259- 
264;  legends,  260,261;  trans- 
lation, 265 ;  compared  with 
Simon  de  Montfort,  270,  271 

Thomas  of  Cantilupe,  Saint  and 
Bishop,  153  n.  i 

Thomas,  Earl  of  Lancaster,  re- 
garded as  a  saint,  274 

Thuringia,  Saint  Elizabeth  of, 
48-56 

Tibba  of  Peterborough,  Saint, 
306,  306  n.  I 

Trees,    cult   of,   46,   62,  98,  312- 

,313 
Trier,    martyrology     of,    28   n.  ; 


saints  honoured  in  the  dio- 
cese, 43  n.  3 
Triphon,  Saint,  of  Russia,  43 
Turgot  (or  Theodoric),  chaplain 
of  S.  Margaret,  Queen  of 
Scots,  317,  318  n.  I  ;  his  Lif' 
of  her  quoted,  161  n.  i,  278,  279 

Udalric,  Saint,  the  first  case  of 
formal  canonization  (?),  23  n.  3 

Ugolino,  Brother,  author  of  the 
Fioreiii  of  S.  Francis,  66,  67  ; 
contrasted  with  I'ray  Ciaspar 
de  la  Annunciacioi;,  '74 

Unity  in  the  Church,  need  of, 
359-361,  365,  366;  thoughts  on, 
90  ;  of  the  saints,  37,  89,  90 

Unthane,  Saint,  306  n.  i 

Urban  VIII.,  Pope,  insists  on 
formal  canonization,  23  n.  3 

Ursula,  Saint,  306  n.  i 

Usuard,  ninth  century  martyro- 
logy, 29 

"Venerable,"  the  title,  198  n.  2; 
applied  to  Bede,  199,  200 

Victoria  the  Great,  Queen,  of 
blessed  memory,  "353  -  355  ; 
speech  at  prorogation  of  first 
Parliament,  353,  354;  Jubilee 
message,  1897,  354 

Virginit}-,  of  Edwarrl  the  Con- 
fessor, 160;  of  S.  Edmund, 
143  n.  2 ;  of  S.  Frideswide, 
310-312;  S.  Elizabeth's 
thoughts  on,  50;  of  Joan  of 
Arc,  62  ;  S.  Mildred,  304 

Virgin  saints  among  Celts,  Irish 
and  Welsh,  303 

Visions  seen  by  Alfred,  149  ; 
Cuthbert  (of  temptation),  192; 
Guthlac,  221 ;  a  nun  of  Hack- 
ness,  308,  309;  a  Jewish  bo\, 
330  n.  i;  S.  Keyne,  303;  vS. 
Oswald,  128;  S.  Teresa,  79. 
See  Dreams 

Vladimir  the  Great,  Saint,  40,  41 

Waggett,  P.  N.,  on  Kafir  mis- 
sions, 12  n.  2 

Walburga,  Saint,  46  n.  i,  306  n.  i 

Wales,  saints  of,  102  ff.  ;  authori- 
ties, 103  n.  2  ;  monasteries  in, 
100  n.  2.     See  Welsh 

Ward,  Miss  Gertrude,   on  East 


Index 


3«5 


African  inissiouwork,  ii  n.  1-3, 

12  n.  I 
Ward,  Bishop  Seth,  011  Charles 

I-  352  ,      _ 

Warren,  Canon,  F.  W.,  Leofric 

Missal,  28  n.  i,  48  n.  3  ;  on  the 

Anglican  Kalendar,  33  n.  4 
Warren,  T.   Herbert,    President 

of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford, 

267  n.  2,  268 
Welsh  line  of  influence  in  earl}- 

English       Christianity,      93  ; 

Welsh     saints,     29 ;     general 

character      not      high,     105 ; 

stories    of,    conspicuous     for 

miracles  of    vengeance,   291  ; 

the    Welsh     attachment      to 

dogma,  109.     See  Wales 
Werburgh     (Werburga),    Saint, 

no  n.,  306  n.  I,  316,  317 
Westcott,  Dr.  B.   F.,  Bishop   of 

Durham,  quoted,  91,  181  n.  i, 

205  n.  I,  364  n.  2 
Whitby,  Saint  Hilda  at,  307 
Whytford's  jMartiloge,  144  n.  i, 

146  n.  7,  152  n.  2,  161  n.  2 
Wibert  of  Nogeut,  279,  292 
Wigbert,  Saint,  46  n.  i 
Wilberforce,     The    Incarnation, 

quoted,  37  n.  3 
Wilfrith,  Saint,  no  n.,  185,  195- 

197,  305,  308,  312,  315 
WilHam  II.  (Rufus),  236,  248  n.  i 
William  of  Malmesbur}-,  quoted, 

36  u.   I,  88  n.  2,    122  n.  2,  149 

n.  3,  155  n.  I,  156,  157,  200,  201, 

208  n  1-3,  209  n.  I,  292,  310,  312 

n.  I. 
William  of  Newburgh,  quoted, 

58  n.  2,  94,  210,  211,  226 
William  of  Norwich,  Saint,  286, 

287,  323  n.  2,  324-327,  329 


Willibald,  biographer  of  S.  Boni- 
face, 44  n.  1,2,  46  n.  I ;  quoted, 
47  n-  1,  2 

Willibrord,  vSaint,  Apostle  of  the 
Frisians,  45  n.,  46,  48  n.  i. 

Wine,  miracles  connected  with, 
285 

Winfrith,  no  n.  See  Boniface 
and  Wynfrith 

Winifred  (Winifrith,  Wenefride) 
of  Holywell,  Saint,  306  n.  i, 
313  ;  omitted  in  Anglican 
Kalendar,  33  n.  6 

Wistan,  Saint,  153  n.  i 

Withljurga,  Saint,  306  n.  i 

Woman,  position  of,  in  heathen- 
dom and  under  Christianity, 
299 

Women  and  children  among 
the  saints,  299-330;  saints  of 
England  free  from  hysteric 
excesses  of  foreign  women 
saints,  321  ;  Women  Saints, 
Lives  of,  33  n.  3,  301-303  n.  3, 
304  n.  I,  3,  4,  305  n.  I,  2,  306 
n.  I,  314  n.  I,  317  n.  i,  318-319 

Woods,  Mrs.,  The  Builders, 
quoted,  363 

Wulfhilde,  306  n.  i 

Wiilfstan  of  Worcester,  Saint, 
33  n.  6,  36  n.  I,  122 

Wulfstan,  Archbishop  of  York, 
Homilies,  155  n.  i 

Wunibald,  vSaint,  46  n.  i 

Wyclif,  resemblance  of  his  views 
to  those  of  Grosseteste,  273 

Wynfrith,  Saint,  44.  See  Boni- 
face 

W3nkyn  de  Worde,  29,  30  n.  4, 
31 

Zosinia,  Saint,  of  Russia,  42 


ERRATUM. 
Page  295,  line  4  from  bottom, /c)r  "the  saint  does  act,"  read 
saint  does  not  act." 


WELLS  GARDNER,  DARTON  AND  CO.,  LONDON. 


1    1012  01131    1752 


